Cooped up in World War II bunkers and hostel basements without power and water and surviving on subsistence ration over the past week in Sumy, about 60km from the Russian border, over 700 Indian students hoped to be rescued from the embattled city when Moscow called a ceasefire to open a corridor for refugees in Mariupol and Volnovakha in the southeast. But that hope soon faded as Russian forces started shelling those areas again.
“We are constantly hearing the sound of bombs, shells and gunshots. We are afraid. We have waited long and can’t do this anymore. We are risking our lives. We are moving towards the border. If anything happens to us, it’s the responsibility of the government and the Indian embassy,” said some of the students in a video message from their hostel hideout at Sumy State University on Saturday.
They didn’t say how they are going to make this treacherous journey to Mariupol, about 600km from Sumy, in the freezing weather and bombing, with most roads and bridges destroyed in the shelling. No trains are moving in Sumy either.
“Everyone is carrying guns. It’s too risky to try to leave on our own. Conditions are terrible. We are very scared,” said Jayesh Patel from Indore. Some of the students tried to move west, but quickly realised the hopelessness of such a venture. “Trains are not available. Bus drivers are not there. There is no transport,” Jayesh said.
Concerned about these students’ safety, the Indian government said it has been in touch with Russian and Ukrainian authorities to allow its citizens to move to the Russian border or Ukraine’s western borders with Romania, Hungary and Poland.
PM Narendra Modi held a meeting on Saturday evening to discuss the situation in Ukraine and India’s evacuation efforts, sources said. Foreign minister S Jaishankar and his cabinet colleague Piyush Goyal were present at the meeting chaired by Modi that also had several top bureaucrats.
The MEA said it had “strongly pressed” Russia and Ukraine through multiple channels for an immediate ceasefire to create a safe corridor for Indian students. MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the government was not in favour of students venturing out till a safe passage was made available.
Russian buses are said to be waiting for them across the border, not more than 60km away, but reaching there when the area is pounded by constant shelling will be a huge challenge.
The Indian government said that all students in Kharkiv, about 200km from Sumy and close to the Russian border, have moved out. There are about 300 in nearby Pesochin and, according to the MEA, buses had been arranged to take them to the western border.
Sonam Kumari, a sixth-year MBBS student, said Indians in Sumy haven’t got any help unlike their compatriots in Kharkiv. “Why have we been ignored?” she asked as she narrated their everyday ordeal of collecting ice or snow from a football field or nearby lake and melting them for water. Vyshnav R Menona fourth-year student from Kerala, said: “It is the 10th day of the war. Our railway routes have been bombed. We do not see any hope. Everyone we turn to for help is telling us to wait. I think Sumy is abandoned. Students from all other cities have been evacuated.”
More than 21,000 Indians are said to have left Ukraine so far and over 13,000 have reached home on 63 flights operated under Operation Ganga, the mission code for the government’s evacuation effort. More than 2,000 are expected to return on 11 flights from Romania and Hungary on Sunday.
Inputs from Sunitha Rao in Bengaluru, Disney Tom in Kochi and Ramendra Singh in Bhopal