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2 Ludhiana friends among 700 students evacuated from Sumy
The evacuation of students began after two failed attempts on Monday. They will be taken to Poltava, a city in central Ukraine
Ludhiana/Amritsar: Two friends from Ludhiana are among the 700 students being evacuated from Ukraine’s war-ravaged Sumy city on Tuesday, nearly 12 days after they were holed up in the basement of a hostel to escape Russia’s military offensive.
Mansi Kondal and Prabhneet Kaur, residents of Vishwakarma Nagar, had gone to study MBBS at Sumy State University in the north-eastern city in 2018. The two girls have been studying together since the fifth grade. They have been hiding in the basement of their hostel along with other students after the Russian attack.
The evacuation of students began after two failed attempts on Monday. They will be taken to Poltava, a city in central Ukraine.
Parents of both the girls said they have seen the news of evacuation on television channels but due to poor network, they could not reach them to know about the latest update.
“The four buses have been parked outside their institute since Monday. Yesterday, the children boarded the buses and were all set to leave when the evacuation attempt was abandoned,” Prabhneet’s father Jasbir Singh.
Mansi’s father Rajinder Singh said that the students were running out of food and water. “Even yesterday, rescue attempts were made but the operation was pulled out at the last moment following reports of ceasefire violation. We are trying to reach our children for confirmation but have not received any updates since morning,” Singh said.
Mansi had earlier made an SOS call at home saying they would die of hunger and urged the government to evacuate them at the earliest.
Relieved, say parents of Batala student
Parents of Vishal Sharma, who hails from Batala and is also among the evacuated students, were relieved to know that their son is on his way home.
“I just had a telephonic conversation with my son. He told me that the Ukrainian army is taking them to Poltava, a city of Central Ukraine, on the buses after evacuation and they were about to reach this city. He said they have not told much about how they were being sent back to their home country,” said Rajinder Singh Sharma, Vishal’s father.
