SRINAGAR: As the authorities and the parents are waiting for the next batch of students from Ukraine, reports emerging on social media paint a gloomy picture from Sumy state. There are around 700 Indian students including seven or eight from Jammu and Kashmir.
“Stranded Indian students in Sumy state are crying,” one tweet said. “Huge explosion near students’ hostel, everyone is frightened, anxious. No availability of light. Students took ice from outside hostel & now melting it for drinking, as there is no water available.”
These students were reportedly shifted from their campuses to bomb shelters yesterday, which is an emergency measure.
Earlier in the day, Russia’s official news agency TASS quoted news agency Colonel-General Mizintsev saying: “A total of 130 comfortable buses are ready to depart to Kharkov (Kharkiv) 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.” This was in response to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s call to Russian premier, V Putin. thee is no information about the follow-up if any.
The Government of India told the Supreme Court that there were around 25000 Indians in Ukraine of whom around 17000 have been successfully evacuated. The government had deployed the IAF transporter aircraft to manage the evacuations swiftly.
Right now, a group of Indians are at an airport in Poland about to take off for Delhi. These include five students from Kashmir. It is an IAF aircraft that is flying them home, one of the students said.
Meanwhile, the 5-member Kashmir family that had been rescued earlier this week, has reached home in Srinagar.
Meanwhile Harjot Singh, an Indian student who received several bullets while attempting to flee the Ukraine capital has survived. The government announced they will e funding his entire expanse in the Ukrainian hospital. One Karnataka student was killed in a Russian fire and another from Punjab died of cardiac arrest.
