Sumy (Ukraine), March 4 (UNI) Fear written on hundreds of faces went viral on social media on Friday, as a student stuck in Sumy (a town near Kharkiv border) pleaded into a video: “There are snipers at every corner, please help us. “We can be shot dead…there can be an attack unleashed any moment where we are stuck. “The atmosphere is fraught with uncertainty…there are airstrikes every hour/half an hour.” He zoomed his camera outside their hostel window, where everything is covered in snow. “Look out there, it is minus degrees outside. “How do you expect us to get out of here? Reach anywhere?” He zooms back into the students’ faces in the background and points out that there are more girls in his hostel, where he has taken shelter. There is a similar situation in several hostels where many Indian students are stuck in the Sumy university. At least 800/900 Indian students were pleading for help from Government of India, in the video as the Narendra Modi administration claimed ‘over a lakh have been evacuated’ so far from war torn Ukraine. As the Ukraine crisis deepens with each passing day, these lot of students are stuck in the northeastern city of the country that has faced steady and heavy attack from the Russian forces. “We have been appealing for help right from the beginning, when the war broke out. “We have been hoping they will reach us, evacuate us before something terrible happens as is happening in Kyiv and Kharkiv. “We appeal to Modi government, please take us out of here. We are not in a position to get out on our own,” he said, as he related to incidents of students of some other nationality, who was shot dead, when he tried to flee from the hostel.” “Please let not that be our fate too,” he appeared to be at his wit’s end to somehow make his message reach the right person. “We do not have any food, ration, no water, not even to clean ourselves, even the toilets have run dry,” he said in the video uploaded on social media. Making the desperate appeal to the GoI, through the video, the student said, the situation “is out of control here and there is no facility of transport to reach the border”. “There is no possibility of taking the road or the railways to reach the borders,” he said. “We have been asked to reach the border but how could it possible for us when there are snipers all over area here.” he said. “At present we are safe, but there is a lot firing going and every hour there is shelling and air strike” he said “Some foreign students trying to escape from the hostel but they were shot dead, so after that not a single student from India is trying to go outside for this place.” Narrating the ordeal and circumstances they have been facing, he said “Since yesterday night we have had no food to eat, there is no water for drinking, even the tap water in hostel is running out.” Railways have been destroyed in that oblast, there are no facilities of road transport either, he said, adding, “GoI is saying buses are waiting for us at the borders. But how are we going to reach the borders…. please help us.” He also said that the Russian borders are 40/50 km away and it would take them 20 to 25 minutes but even then, they are in no position to reach there. Students at various Ukraine universities — Odessa, Sumy, Kyiv and Kharkiv are still stuck, even as Operation Ganga continues to mount evacuation efforts on Hungarian, Romanian borders with Ukraine.
Comments are closed.