E-Paper
Prayagraj region’s students finally begin reaching homes from Ukraine
Every student returning home brings with them horror stories of air raids, missile attacks and explosions in Ukraine
Students hailing from Prayagraj region, who were stuck in war-torn Ukraine, have finally begun arriving back at their homes.
Among the first to return are Nishi Singh, an MBBS student, who reached her home in village Bhikhnapur in Delhupur area of Pratapgarh and Yashasvi Srivastava, a first-year medical student hailing from Mundera locality of Sangam city. Two more students Saurabh Kesarwani, an aspiring medico hailing from village Pandua in Lalapur area of Prayagraj and Ritvik Diwakar, a resident of Saket Nagar, also managed to reach home late on Tuesday night. The duo took a flight from Bucharest after crossing the Ukraine-Romania border.
Each student brings with him horror stories of air raids, missile attacks and explosions in Ukraine.
“Russia started bombing Kyiv as well as the city of Ivano-Frankivsk from February 24. There were explosions at Ivano’s airport, and we knew about the danger, but the hour-long wait at the border of Ukraine and Romania was far more dangerous. Seeing the constant scuffles between thousands of students on the border, I thought it would have been better if I had have stayed back in my hostel,” recalled Yashasvi Srivastava while sitting with her family members at her home.
The budding doctor also informed that the students were given air defense training a day before Russia attacked Ukraine.
In the training, we were told that the lights should be turned off as soon as the air raid sirens sounded. We had to stay in a bunker, turn off the lights at night and sleep with our shoes on so that we could run away if needed, she shared.
Nishi Singh, daughter of sub-Inspector Anil Singh, while sharing her experience, shared that she is a student of the National Medical University of Ivano-Frankivsk. “On February 24, the hostel students were alerted that they would all be needed to go to the bunker after the sounding of the sirens. The bunker was in the hostel itself. All the students kept awake all night. On February 25, 40 students booked a bus to the Romanian border, 300 km away. The bus dropped us eight kilometres before the Romanian border in the evening, and everyone started walking. It was night when we reached the Romanian border walking in minus 3 degrees Celsius temperature,” she shared.
Nishi said that while entering the Romanian border from Ukraine, Indian girls were given priority. She also shared that all students with her were brought free of cost, for which efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian government are commendable. She also requested that all the Indian students trapped in Ukraine or neighbouring countries should be brought back safely.
Ritvik Diwakar and Saurab Kesarwani came to Prayagraj from Ivano city of Ukraine.
Many other students of the region have crossed the border and will board the flights back home from neighbouring countries as part of the Indian government’s “Operation Ganga” in the next few days.
Amit Mishra, a student from Meja Road, has reached the Hungarian border with many of his friends from Lucknow and Varanasi on Monday. On a WhatsApp call, Amit informed his parents that Indian Embassy is looking after them and have made arrangements for their stay, food etc. Amit’s father Prabhashankar Mishra, and uncle Pramod Kumar Gautam breathed a sigh of relief on hearing that their ward has reached a safe zone. Dikshant Srivastava, who stayed in Moldova, has reached Romania via road. Satyendra Yadav, a resident of Kotwa village, has also reached Romania even as Vaibhav Tripathi of Jhunsi, Hemant Verma of Dhumanganj and Hrithik Diwakar are likely to arrive back home by Thursday.
Two students, Pramod Yadav and Anurag Singh, hailing from neighbouring Kaushambi are also trapped in Ukraine. Both these students are trying to cross the border even as the family members are anxiously waiting back here. Adarsh Tripathi and his relative Ashutosh Pandey of Kunda have reached Romania and are waiting to return home.
