Never feared more for my life,’ says Indian student who returned from Ukraine

 The last three days of February have been the toughest in the life of Ankita Chaturvedi, a second-year MBBS student at Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University.

“I have never feared more for my life than on Friday,” said Chaturvedi, who arrived in Delhi during the wee hours on the second Air India evacuation flight from Bucharest.

Chaturvedi and 84 other students from her university have been travelling since the evening of February 25 when they boarded two buses to reach the Ukraine-Romania border.

“It took us three days of travel. We had the support of the authorities all through the journey. Ukrainian police escorted us to the Romanian border—we were only 40 kilometres from the border, which we walked. At the border we waited about four hours to enter Romania. From there it was an eight-hour journey to the airport,” Chaturvedi said.

She first got in touch with the Indian embassy in Ukraine on February 24 after attacks happened in Ivano-Frankivsk and the whole town was put into a lockdown-like state.

“All the shops were shut down and we couldn’t buy any food or water. We were asked to pack lightly, only two bags per person,” she said, adding that some senior students at her university were coordinating with the Indian embassy and after getting in touch with the local police had managed to get two buses.

By the morning of February 25, along with eight Ukrainian policemen, the students left, travelling in a convoy to Kyiv with the Indian Tricolour in front of their vehicle.

“We were asked to close all the curtains of our buses and avoid being seen by any locals to avoid people storming the bus or trying to stop them,” Chaturvedi said.

After about seven hours of chaos their convoy was instructed to turn back around and head for Sighetu Marmaţiei at the Ukraine-Romania border as the Russian forces were advancing towards Kyiv.

“When we were asked to turn back around everyone started panicking because most of us were hungry and cold and only three working phones were available on the bus,” she said.

Chaturvedi said that only two Ukrainian policemen spoke English and were trying to make sure everyone was calm along with some of her senior students.

“When we were asked to return from Kyiv, everyone had very little food and water, and most of the students had not slept and had not used the washroom as well,” she said.

“It was difficult for the girls and we tried to avoid going to the bathroom, but every three-four hours we would stop at petrol pumps to use the bathrooms.”

By around 8 pm on February 25, the bus reached Sighetu Marmaţiei, where the Indian embassy had arranged a safe exit to Romania.

“We finally reached the border on the same day, late at night. Freezing in the cold, we all waited to get the formalities done and finally managed to cross the border the next morning,” Chaturvedi said.

She said that things at the border were absolute chaos and everyone was scared as reports kept coming in that Russian forces were moving towards the border as well.

“We could hear gunshots and explosions, and sirens all night. There were many injured people around and the soldiers were screaming at everyone to try and maintain order,” she said.

Chaturvedi added that it was very cold at the border and everyone was scared of what would happen next.

“At one point in the night there was a stampede as people were trying to funnel through two small gates, some even attempting to jump across the barricades,” she recalled.

Chaturvedi added that many other students of her university got stranded at the border for several hours since there was a lot of confusion at the border and there were thousands of students coming from different parts of Ukraine.

Once the students crossed into Romania they were greeted by officials from the Indian embassy who gave them some food and escorted them to an evacuation centre.

“We rested at the evacuation centre for two hours before leaving for the Bucharest airport in buses. Then the next day we boarded the flight for Delhi,” she said.

Like Chaturvedi, there are many other Indian students who are constantly seeking help from the government.

Muhammad Afridi Shoaib, a student at the National Pirogov Memorial Medical University in Ukraine’s Vinnytsia, also returned to Delhi on Sunday morning after travelling for two straight days.

Shoaib and around 350 students from his city took two buses to Chernivtsi, a city in western Ukraine that borders Romania, on February 25.

“Some Ukrainian bus drivers thankfully agreed and we got six buses and two minibuses. Each bus was able to accommodate 53 students and we paid Rs 3 lakh per bus. The students pooled in the money,” Shoaib said.

He added that they had to travel for around 10 hours and then wait for another six at the border before finally crossing over into Romania at 7 am on February 27.

Deepak Gupta, a third-year MBBS student, said he and around 10 other students from his university travelled for around 30 hours after the attacks began.

“We drove for 12 hours from Kyiv to Ivano-Frankivsk without food and water after one of our Ukrainian friends lent us his spare car after getting in touch with the Indian embassy on February 25,” Gupta said.

“We hired a taxi in Ivano-Frankivsk and after five hours reached the Ukraine-Romania border. There was utter chaos and we had to leave our taxi 6 km away from the border.”

He added that his group then walked to the immigration checkpoint where thousands of people were gathered hoping to gain entry into Romania. He said that the Ukrainian Army was unable to manage the surging crowd and to scare people they were firing in the air.

Around 20,000 Indians are taking the MBBS course in Ukraine. Many of them have gotten in touch with the Indian embassy and have expressed their desire to leave the country as soon as possible. While many of them are based in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, others are spread across the country.

Last week, hours after the invasion by Russia began in the form of airstrikes across major cities across Ukraine, the Indian embassy in Kyiv asked students to not travel to the capital and, instead, head back to the respective cities they were based in. While asking Indians to maintain calm, the embassy had also asked students to possibly head to the western borders, currently considered to be relatively safer.