Ukraine crisis: Noida families of stuck students in despair

As news of 21-year-old Indian student Naveen Shekharappa Gyandagoudar’s death in war-torn Ukraine’s Kharkiv broke, the worries of the kin of other students stuck in the city turned to despair

As news of 21-year-old Indian student Naveen Shekharappa Gyandagoudar’s death in war-torn Ukraine’s Kharkiv broke, the worries of the kin of other students stuck in the city turned to despair.

Pooja Yadav is among six students listed with the Gautam Budh Nagar district administration for evacuation. (Sourced)

Esha Dutt (19), a first-year student of Kharkiv National Medical University from Sector 137 in Noida, and Pooja Yadav (23), a final-year student of Karazin Kharkiv National University from Gamma-1 in Greater Noida, have not been able to leave Kharkiv, about 500 kilometres away from Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, since Russia launched a large-scale invasion of the country on February 24, say the women’s families.

While Esha is hunkering down in the bunkers of her university campus, Pooja is hiding in the subway bunkers about 500 metres from her university campus, their families say.

According to Pooja’s father Kanhaiya Yadav, the spot where Naveen was killed is barely 50 metres away from the subway bunkers. “Pooja was visiting the same supermarket till about two days ago to buy food and use the toilet, but since the attacks became more intense, we advised her not to step out,” he said.

He added that he last spoke to Pooja on Monday morning when she told him that she and the other students are planning to travel to Kharkiv railway station in order to leave the city. “There are about 200 more students from her university at the subway bunkers. She told us in the morning that she will leave for the railway station when shelling stops. However, we have not been able to speak to her since then,” said Yadav, adding the family was worried sick for her safety.

Kharkiv is over a 1,000km away from the Romania, Hungary and Poland borders, which makes it very difficult for students to evacuate the country, either by road or train.

Esha’s father Sandeep Dutt, said that he was in touch with his daughter, and she was in distress.

“Esha called me on Tuesday morning when news of Naveen’s death reached the students there, and cried. I could hear the sound of shelling through the phone, which scared me, but all I could do was assure my daughter that everything would be fine,” said Dutt.

He said that since the city is less than 50km away from the Russian border, and India claims its diplomatic ties with Russia are good, the government should try to get these students evacuated through this border.

When HT reached out to Esha, she said the situation in Kharkiv is worsening everyday.

“The bombing and shelling are intensifying everyday. All we can think about is going back home. Food and water are scarce here and living conditions are getting worse. We hope the government can get us out. The border points of all other countries are very far off and getting there would take us over two days via train or bus,” said Esha, over text messages.

Esha and Pooja are among six students listed with the Gautam Budh Nagar district administration for evacuation. The other four have reached Romania and are waiting to be brought back home.

“The details of these students have been sent to the ministry of external affairs. Once any of them are on-board an evacuation flight, we will receive their names and inform their families,” said Balram Singh, additional district magistrate (law), Gautam Budh Nagar, who is in charge of relief operations.