It was a hellish experience for Ritik who was trying to stay safe in the Ukrainian city of Sumy, located just 50 miles away from Russian border, surviving on minimal food and water, while bombs exploded barely metres away from their bunkers.
However, he finally heaved a sigh of relief after reaching home in Vadodara’s Tarsali area on Friday in one piece.
In the fortnight that passed, Ritik has seen it all – from civilians handling guns to lifeless bodies on roads in a war zone that witnessed constant shelling and long wailing air raid sirens.
“Since the day, Russian president Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine, we were struck in World War II era bunkers with no clue on how to return home. Tanks and Russian army had started marching inside Sumy, they had already replaced the Ukrainian flag with the Russian flag on the same night and heavy shelling had started,” recollects Ritik.
As days passed by, students like Ritik could not even use their cellphones between 5 pm and 7 am. “A little flash of light would attract a snipper attack or an air strike. Our hostel building would tremble with each bomb that exploded within 2km radius,” recalled Ritik, shuddering at how the Russian army exploded a bomb just when they were being evacuated. “We again returned to our bunkers..started calling the embassy. We were told to wait for another 48 hours,” said Ritik, part of the last batch of students evacuated from Sumy as part of ‘Operation Ganga’.
After such turbulent experience, when Ritik along with other students from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Dubai finally left in 16-17 buses for Poltava, the roads were damaged, Russian tanks were entering Sumy, Ukrainian civilians were armed up with guns.
“After we left Sumy, there were some 10-15 blasts that killed 70-80 people,” said Ritik, who like other students travelled at least 60 hours from Sumy to Poltava, from Poltava to Lviv in train and from Lviv to Poland border in another train before flying to Delhi from Poland.
“We are thankful to Indian government for finally evacuating us from the warzone. But we are equally thankful to media which kept government under pressure that ensured our safe evacuation,” said Ritik whose sight finally brought relief to his family including his father Khemchand, a schoolteacher.