ONE of the Indian expatriate students from Bahrain studying in Ukraine, featured in the GDN on Monday, has made it to safety from the war-torn country and two others are still sheltering hoping to head to the border shortly.
Final year medical student Indian Vipull Joseph, reached the Slovakian border almost 60 hours after leaving the under-seige capital, Kyiv, as Russian troops closed in.
The 23-year-old student of Bogomolets National Medical University, son of long-term Bahrain resident Joseph Antony, was among 200 students who walked from their hostel bunker to a metro station, as directed by the Indian Embassy.
“It was difficult, we were hungry, tired and faced a lot of hurdles before we could board the train,” Vipull told the GDN in a brief call from a shelter in Slovakia, where he was resting yesterday.
“The wait at the Slovakian border was long – but we had soup and macaroni while waiting there – the first solid food in almost 48 hours.
“The Indian Embassy in Slovakia took us from the border to a nearby shelter. We feel safe now but tired and waiting to travel home.”
Vipull’s elder brother Jithin, a UAE-resident, has been in constant touch with him throughout the emotionally-tiring journey.
“They were not allowed to carry any baggage onboard and so they left behind their clothes, food and even water at the station,” Jithin said.
“They reached Lviv in four hours and from there, they took another train to Rakhiv and then to Hungary. In Hungary, they had to wait for almost eight hours before boarding a bus to Slovakia.
“In two hours they reached the Slovakian border and an Indian Embassy team took them to a sports centre in Presov. After around eight hours they were moved to an apartment in the same area. Depending on the availability of flights, the students will fly to Mumbai or Delhi soon.”
Ramya Ravikumar, a 19-year-old first year medical student at Kharkiv National Medical University, who spoke to the GDN last Sunday, also said yesterday that she was ‘safe’. She and her friends walked through a 26km tunnel and were now in a metro station awaiting a train.
Earlier, she was hiding in a make-shift bunker in the basement of the Hotel Mir in Kharkiv with other students. “We’re safe now, but too tired to talk,” she told the GDN.
Her mother Manju Ravikumar said she was worried as her daughter had not eaten anything over the last two days.
“They decided to walk as help was not reaching Kharkiv – we understand the limitations and the embassy wanted them to reach a border – so they walked 26km through a tunnel and now they are in a metro, I don’t know which place,” she said. “We are waiting for her to call us.”
A 19-year-old girl who was travelling by train to Hungary when she last spoke to the GDN has reached Chop, a city in the west of Ukraine. She was in Kyiv for two days in an underground metro station. The veterinary student said she was yet to decide which border she would head to.
“It’s hard to find a train, we can only hope to get out of this if we stay together,” she said, requesting anonymity.
Meanwhile, the German Embassy in Bahrain sported the Ukraine flag at its mission in Manama yesterday.
“Putins’s invasion of #Ukraine marks a new era and is a direct attack not only on Ukraine, but on the rules based order,” tweeted German Ambassador Kai Boeckmann.
“We cannot remain silent. This requires each and every one of us to take action. That’s why we are flying (the flag)”.
The British Embassy had also raised the Ukraine flag at its mission last week.
See war update: Page 9
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