Ukraine crisis: Batala student stuck in Sumy says no help coming their way

Students stuck in the eastern Ukraine city of Sumy made yet another video appeal on Sunday, claiming that neither the Indian government nor any humanitarian organisation has reached out to them

Even as the Union ministry of external affairs on Saturday stated that it had focused its evacuation efforts in Ukraine on the eastern city of Sumy, where around 700 Indian students are stranded amid intense shelling by Russian forces, the students made yet another video appeal on Sunday, claiming that neither the Government of India nor any humanitarian organisation has reached out to them.

Vishal Sharma (in blue jacket), a medical student at Sumy State University who belongs to Batala in Punjab, making a video appeal.

On Saturday, Indian students at Sumy State University had posted an emotional video on social media in which they said they would undertake a risky journey towards the Russian border, about 60 kilometre away, on foot as no effort had been made to evacuate them. However, the Indian authorities had dissuaded them, flagging the risk and assuring them of safe evacuation.

However, in yet another video shared by a group of students on Sunday, Vishal Sharma, a medical student at Sumy State University who belongs to Batala in Punjab, said: “Indian government or humanitarian organisations have not reached out to us with any kind of help. Risk to life is increasing day by day. Panic has gripped us after a student was shot in Kharkiv. We don’t want any of our colleagues to suffer this kind of attack. The situation is going to get worse. Starvation is most likely to prevail in the coming days”.

A girl student standing next with Vishal said: “It’s been seven days but we are getting no information about our evacuation. We are completely stuck here. The Indian embassy is extending no help. Contractors are helping, us but we don’t find any means to leave this place. We have been left in the lurch… We have also contacted the volunteers of Khalsa Aid International. They assured us that they will make full efforts to evacuate us, but yet nothing has been done.”

Raising concern over their plight, former state legislator from Batala Ashwani Sekhri said, “Three Batala students — Vishal Sharma, Gurshant and Sourabh — are stuck in Sumy. They have called me over the phone telling me that they don’t have enough food to eat. Their parents are anxious and restlessness. I urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to do something to bring them back via Russia.”