AFTER a 21-year-old student from Karnataka was killed in shelling in Kharkiv, many of the 50-odd stranded students hailing from Mumbai are looking at alternatives to move out of the city and are flocking to railway stations in the hope that they get a safe passage out.
With the death of a fellow medical student from Kharkiv National Medical University, Goregaon resident Keranap Kirupakaran rushed to the city’s railway station, risking her life amid the bombing. The fifth-year medical student broke down while talking to her brother on the phone as she was still not able to board a train.
Talking to The Indian Express, her 29-year-old brother Johnson Ebenezer said she told him that they had been staying in an overcrowded bunker of a private building for over six days without the basic amenities. In the morning, once the news of the student’s death spread, their cab driver refused to ferry them to the station. But the students didn’t want to stay on and booked another taxi at an exorbitant price. Later in the evening, she got a train to Rakhiv city.
As per the data from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), around 50 students from Mumbai are yet to be rescued from Ukraine.
Like Keranap, many other students from Kharkiv risked an 18-hour train journey to Lviv from where they aim to cross over to Poland. “We didn’t know if we would be able to make it to the station,” said Suresh Patil, from Parbhani in the state.
Meanwhile, hundreds of stranded students are living in fear and anxiety. Kharkiv, which is located barely 40 km from the Russian border, has seen intense fighting over the past few days. A large cluster of medical students from India is stranded there. “Students are being rescued but priority should have been given to those from Kharkiv and Kyiv. This is complete mismanagement,” said Ebenezer.