KEY HIGHLIGHTS
New Delhi: With the Ukraine crisis escalating day by day, students still stuck in the northeastern city of Sumy have appealed for help, hoping they would be evacuated before they face a situation like that in Kyiv and Kharkiv. Notably, Sumy is near the Russian border.An MBBS student from Mundka in west Delhi discussed his ordeal with Times Now on Thursday. Kapil Singh is one of about 700-800 students at Sumy State University in Ukraine. He said he could not leave earlier than 15th March because the university was scheduled to hold an exam. As the world watched Russia invade its neighbour, Ukraine, on February 24, his university insisted that students should not leave. According to Kapil, the university conducted online classes from February 24 to February 27. Currently, 700-800 Indian students are stuck in the university’s hostels. Besides, students from Kazakhstan, Nigeria and other countries are also there, said Kapil. Related NewsIndia denies Russia’s claim of Ukraine holding Indian students as ‘human shields’As conflict escalates, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan urges Malayali students to strictly follow govt ordersHe added that in some instances, seven students are sharing a room that is only designed to accommodate three. Their food stocks have run out. They have no water bottles, so they are now drinking tap water, said the MBBS student. In addition, Kapil said students are awakened by bombings at almost 7:30 am, leaving them alarmed and panicked. Related NewsUkraine-Russia conflict: Working to create safe passages for Indians stuck in conflict zones – Moscow to IndiaHe further told Times Now that when a bombing occurs, an alarm is sounded, alerting students and others to seek safety in bunkers, which are essentially basements of the hostels they are currently staying in. As the situation unfolded, not only did Indian students panic and search for a safe place, their families back home were also glued to the television and internet for updates. Kapil said parents of the students stuck in the university have asked them to drop a message every hour to make sure they are safe. In addition, he said that every night the power gets cut at 9 pm and gets restored at around 4 am. When the alarms go off, the electricity also goes out. The students use phone lights to get to their bunkers. Kapil urged the government to evacuate them as soon as possible, saying Poland is 1,000 kilometres away from Sumy, making it nearly impossible for them to get there. “We are mortified…we do not know if we will survive the night.”He also said that we are told that we shouldn’t panic, but “if bomb blasts and gunfire don’t cause us to panic, then what else will?”. He said he just wants to be in an area where there are no gunshots or sounds of bombs.
Kapil SinghSumy Ukraine🇺🇦Help to evaluate, shortage of water and food Survival day 8 @PMOIndia @VPSecretariat… t.co/Np0NYXte1T— ANI (@ANI) Mar 3, 2022There has been intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday that efforts have been made to reach cities in that part of the country, but it is not easy.India on Wednesday asked its citizens to leave Kharkiv as quickly as possible and go to three nearby locations “even by foot” as fighting intensified in Ukraine’s second-largest city. Russia also promised to create “humanitarian corridors” for Indians to evacuate from conflict zones.In response to a request from New Delhi, Russia has said that it is working “intensely” to create a “humanitarian corridor” for Indian nationals who are stuck in Kharkiv, Sumy, and other conflict zones in Ukraine.Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, announced earlier today that 130 buses have been allocated to evacuate stranded Indian students and other foreigners from war-torn Ukrainian cities Kharkov and Sumy to Russia’s Belgorod Region.”A total of 130 comfortable buses are ready to depart to Kharkov and Sumy from the Nekhoteyevka and Sudzha checkpoints in the Belgorod Region since 6 am today in order to Rescue Indian students and citizens of other foreign states,” Mizintsev was quoted as saying by the state-owned TASS news agency.According to the Ministry of External Affairs, over 18,000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine since the first travel advisory was issued by the Indian Embassy in Kyiv.