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9 Ludhiana students still stranded in war-torn Ukraine
Ninety-nine of 112 Ludhiana students studying in Ukraine have been traced by the district administration, while 13 remain unreachable
A day after the Centre shared details of the 112 Ludhiana students enrolled in Ukrainian universities, the administration on Thursday said it had tracked down 99 students , while 13 could not be reached.
As per the district administration, nine students are still stuck in Ukraine, 49 have reached India, and 41 have crossed the Ukrainian borders. “The phone numbers of 13 students are unreachable, and efforts are on to reach out to them and their families,” said deputy commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma.
While some students returned to India before the Russian invasion, others had a tough time crossing to Poland, Romania and Hungary.
Ashok Kumar, whose daughter Sakshi Sharma studies in Kharkiv, the second largest Ukrainian city that has been ravaged by Russian forces, heaved a sigh of relief as his daughter crossed the Poland border. “She took the train to the Poland border with around 1,200 other students on March 2. We are relieved that she got out safely,” he said.
Lavleen Jindal, also a student of Kharkiv National Medical University, said she returned to India on February 23 on the last flight that left before Russia attacked Ukraine. “I was fortunate to have returned, but my friends from Haryana and Himachal Pradesh are still stuck there in bunkers. I am extremely worried about them,” she said.
Another student studying in the besieged city, Muskan Sharma, was also spared a harrowing experience as she returned to India on February 16. “We are glad she returned soon after the government issued its first advisory,” her father Rotesh, a businessman, said.