Moments after the news of the death of an Indian student, Naveen SG, in Ukraine’s Kharkiv city trickled in, his friend, who is also stranded in the same city, said Naveen had postponed his plan to travel to India Monday and was supposed to fly back Wednesday so that his juniors are not left behind in the war-torn country.
Naveen’s friend Amit Vaishyar, who’s a year senior to the former, spoke to the media and said, “A team took the risk to travel towards the Hungarian border Monday and left. Naveen suggested waiting and taking along juniors as they are less than a year old in Ukraine. It was his idea to leave Kharkiv Wednesday morning.” Both Naveen and Vaishyar are from Karnataka.
Naveen, who hails from Chalageri village of Haveri district, about 300 km from Bengaluru, was a fourth-year student of medicine at the Kharkiv National Medical University.
Amit, who too is from Haveri district, said the duo had a special bond and Naveen was a kind man. Amit knew Naveen for four years after he had shifted to Ukraine for studies. “I am in the fifth year and we have known each other for four years. We spent six days inside a bunker after the war broke out. Whenever the curfew would be revoked to buy groceries, we would go out together to buy essentials. On Tuesday early morning, I slept around 3.30 am and woke up late. By 6 am Naveen had left out to bring food for all of us.”
According to Amit, the market is 50 metre away from the bunker. “Around 7.58 am, he sent a message to one of us saying he is facing a shortage of money to pay and asked us to transfer some money to his account. One of us called his phone at 8.10 am and some Ukrainian national, who had picked up the call, said he was no more.”
Amit said, “The embassy has given up on the students living in Kharkiv and have left us saying they cannot provide any kind of transportation but will only help if we reach the Hungarian or Romanian borders.”
“We were shattered hearing about Naveen’s death but were not allowed to go to the market as explosions and firings kept continuing,” he said. Amit’s father Venkatesh Vaishyar demanded the Union government to help students who are in danger.
Naveen studied in Mysuru district from the 6th to 10th standard. One of his friends from school days, Dinakar, said he had come to Nanjangud six months back after spending two years in Ukraine. “He had come with his mother and had stayed with us for a day and had said he would come back in October and November 2022. He was the first student to get a medical seat from our school,” he said.
Dinakar said his last conversation with Naveen happened Monday when he asked about his safety and said Naveen had informed that although he was in a war zone, he was safe inside the bunkers.
As soon as the news of Naveen’s death spread, panicked students started to leave Khakiv city. Speaking to The Indian Express, Anaina Anna, a native of Mangaluru, who is presently studying medicine in Kharkiv, Tuesday evening said she is taking a risk just like many other Indians. “I tried to reach my agents to get my passport but they refused to hand it over to me. The situation here is getting worse by every minute. There are no trains from Wednesday. So, I decided to leave today (Tuesday). I am going to the border without my passport,” she said.
Anna said that she lived in a bunker which is a kilometre away from the market where the explosion took place. “Till date, we were living eating chocolates and biscuits and even the supply chain has been hit really bad and we are out of cash. Either we will die of hunger or get hit by Russia’s fire so we decided to take the risk and leave. More importantly, we don’t have a choice. It will be a 30-40 hours’ journey.”