Russia-Ukraine conflict
Shyam Kumar was asleep in his rented apartment in Odessa, Ukraine, when a loud explosion rang through his ears around 5 a.m. “I first thought it may be a road accident, but soon realised that war is now a reality,” he told The Hindu on Thursday, as Russia began military operations in Ukraine. A fifth-year medical student of the Odessa National Medical University and a resident of Kakkanad, Kerala, Mr. Shyam Kumar immediately opened news channels and saw images of explosions and aerial attacks in major Ukrainian cities. “We later learnt that the railway station and other vital installations in Odessa were hit,” he said.
In western Ukraine, on Wednesday, Ayush Kumar was trying to book a flight back to India for March. On Thursday morning, he was stocking up groceries and essentials instead. A resident of Uttar Pradesh, the second-year medical student at the Danylo Halytsky lviv National Medical University, Lviv, said over phone, “I was trying to leave for India and I was looking for a flight. Today, the airspace is closed. The situation is not as dangerous as in eastern Ukraine. But we are on alert. We were told to keep a stock of groceries and water and prepare a small backpack with documents.”
Online classes
Since the pandemic outbreak, classes have been conducted online. A month ago, they were informed that March onwards, classes would be offline. But with the situation deteriorating, professors have advised students to not panic as classes would continue online, he said. Arshsalan Azeem from Guwahati is in the same college. Last year, he returned to India during the summer vacations in July, and went back to Ukraine in August. He had similar plans for this year, too, until things went awry. “When we started looking for earlier flights, they were very expensive. We thought we’ll wait, but the situation worsened,” he stated. Mr. Azeem lives in the hostel and has stock to last one or two weeks. “As soon as the air base opens, we want to fly back. Otherwise, we will have to move to some other country. I’ll need funds but ATMs are out of cash. Grocery stores have 70 to 80 people waiting in line. In the worst case scenario, we’ve been asked to evacuate to neighbouring countries,” he said. Students are anxious about their academics too. “I am worried about my course. How do I pursue it further if I have to leave,” he added. Imtiyaz Ahmad Tantary, 23, a second-year student from Kashmir who is pursuing medicine at the Kharkiv National Medical University, said a notice was put up by the college authorities informing the students that on-campus teaching had been stopped for now.
‘Asked to keep calm’
“We were told by the college authorities to keep calm and stay inside. We are feeling safe as of now. We have access to basic amenities,” he said, adding that booking a cab was getting difficult since the morning but the metro services were running normally in the city. Wi-Fi services have been snapped for now. “We can live without Wi-Fi since we are used to it in Kashmir. But we want to get evacuated from Ukraine before the situation worsens,” he noted. Sitting in her university hotel, Vincy Vincent, a resident of Vattiyoorkkavu in Thiruvananthapuram, said that it was only two weeks back that she landed at Sumy, a city in northeastern Ukraine, to pursue her six-year medical programme at the Sumy State University. “The university authorities are giving us regular updates on the situation. They have also assured support to shift us to the bunkers set up on the campus in the wake of a worse scenario,” she said. According to a student in the Kharkiv National Medical University, a resident of a Chennai suburb, there has been no official information but the airports have been shut down. Students have conveyed that Internet connections were patchy, and they are not sure how long they would be able to use the Internet to communicate. Students, parents, activists and political outfits in various States have approached the Union government seeking intervention and efforts to facilitate the return of stranded students.
( With inputs from K.C. Deepika in Bengaluru, Peerzada Ashiq in Srinagar, G. Krishnakumar in Kochi and R. Sujatha and Dennis S. Jesudasan in Chennai)
