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Pune based Shivani Lonkar on being stuck in Ukraine: We just wanted to be back, alive
Shivani Lonkar a Pune student studying in Ukraine talks about her experience in the country and how she came back to her hometown Pune
Shivani Lonkar from Pune, a third-year student of medicine in Kyiv, Ukraine, is now back home. The past week has been traumatic for the 20-year-old, who was initially supposed to leave Ukraine on February 24, until Russia’s assault began on the same day, leaving Lonkar and other Indians like her stranded in the country. “They were tough days. I was clueless. We just wanted to be back, alive and safe,” Lonkar says.
She mentions that the Indian Embassy has “done a lot” for them by getting them out of the country. “They told us to go to the border and things will work for you. However, it was all uncertain. We had to rescue ourselves to reach the border. Some people still cannot come out of the bunkers,” she adds.
Lonkar left her bunker for the railway station to reach the borders on February 28, after the curfew was relaxed. “We were waiting for the curfew to end. I was in my bunker, and there was no TV, no stable internet connection. We didn’t know exactly what was happening. Going from my building to the railway (station) was a task. When I was travelling, it was the most difficult day for me. My family in Pune was scared. I had to make the toughest choices. Even when we left, there was no public transport, so we asked the locals to drop us at the station. People were scared as we heard there were soldiers on the road taking students under custody, separating boys and girls,” Lonkar says.
She reached the Romania border on February 28 and the Indian Embassy took care of the rest. But she mentions that people had to wait till two days at the border to get on the flight, as the mass exodus resulted in a lot of crowding.
Lonkar is back in Pune after a year, but her last days in Ukraine have left her scarred. “Even if a cracker is bursting outside, it gives you a different feeling, it takes you back to those days and emotions,” she says.
