Parents anxiously await return of children stranded in Kharkiv, Ukraine

Navi Mumbai: As students from different parts of Ukraine have begun to be expatriated to India, the parents of a 19-year-old first year medical student currently stranded in a small town in Ukraine, are eagerly awaiting their daughter’s arrival

Navi Mumbai: As students from different parts of Ukraine have begun to be expatriated to India, the parents of a 19-year-old first year medical student currently stranded in a small town in Ukraine, are eagerly awaiting their daughter’s arrival.

Navi Mumbai, India - March 03, 2022: Nerul resident Pradip Kanade waits for the safe return of her daughter Daksha Kanade from Ukraine, in Navi Mumbai, India, on Thursday. (Bachchan Kumar/ HT PHOTO)

Pradeep Kanade (48) and Neha Kanade’s (44) daughter, Daksha, had left for Ukraine three weeks ago. She is among the 59 students from Thane district who are yet to return home. Of the 59, 10 are from Navi Mumbai.

“I don’t know which door to knock and whom to contact. I am getting call from Thane district authorities and I have spoken to local corporators but I have no idea how I can help my daughter. We haven’t slept for days now knowing that our daughter doesn’t have food to eat and any official to help,” Pradeep Kanade said.

Daksha, a Nerul resident, had left India on February 10 to join Kharkiv National Medical University, which insisted on conducting physical classes despite the ongoing pandemic. She had already lost a year due to the pandemic, having cleared her class 12 in 2020.

The Kanades last spoke to their older daughter — their second daughter is 12 — on the morning of March 2 who apprised them of the events that had befallen her and a batch of students ever since the Russian assault began on February 23. Kharkiv, an eastern industrial city, lies 42 km (26 miles) from the Russian border.

“Just three days ago, the Indian embassy informed the students that they need to vacate Kharkiv immediately. They grabbed the passports, some documents and money and left the hostel. The embassy informed them to reach nearest metro station and board a train to Rakhiv and from there the students were to be evacuated via Hungary. The nearest Kharkiv metro station was around 12 km away. They had no means to travel, so around 500 Indian students from various colleges in Kharkiv started walking. They walked for 12 km with whatever food they had,” Kanade said.

Both Ukrainian and Russian military reportedly guided the students to the place, he said.

“They waited at the station for six hours. Four trains passed but none of the citizens there allowed them to board the train. With much difficulty some boys helped around 50 girls to board a train but my daughter could not. After six hours of waiting there with no food, suddenly firing and bombing started as it was an open station,” the father said.

Following the firing, the students ran inside the other part of the station which was underground. The Embassy then asked them to go to a centre at Pisochyn which was another 16 km away, Kanade said.

“In Pisochyn, they were made to stay in some rooms. There has been no update after that. Both Poland and Hungary borders are around 1000 km away from their current location while Russian border is just 100 km away. The lives of our children are in the hands of Indian government,” Kanade said. “It brings a chill in my spine when I think my daughter had to walk 28 km in a war zone.”

Sangam Shaw (20), another student from Nerul who was at Ternopil managed to contact his father Sunil Shaw on Friday after reaching Delhi via Romania. “The call that he made on Friday gave us our life back. Now we are waiting to hug him in person,” Sunil Shaw said.

Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force has placed its Russian IL 76 strategic lift planes on standby to evacuate Indian students, stranded in Kharkiv and Sumy warzone, from Moscow. The students numbering around 4,000 are trapped in the northeast war zone and are being evacuated with the fullest support of Ukraine and Russian authorities, who are providing safe passage to the stranded Indians.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday night to discuss the evacuation of the Indian students stuck in the Ukraine warzone. He also had a conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. External Affairs minister S Jaishankar held talks with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts.