Days after evacuation from Ukraine, student casts her vote in UP polls

Kritika, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Cantt Vidhan Sabha constituency, today cast her vote in the seventh and the last phase of UP polls.

It has been only a few days since Kritika returned home after escaping a full-blown war in Ukraine where she was studying at a university in Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city. A resident of Uttar Pradesh's Cantt Vidhan Sabha constituency, she today cast her vote in the seventh and the last phase of the state polls.

Speaking to India Today about her harrowing experience in Ukraine, she said, "I was in Kharkiv. We were being bombed every 30 minutes to an hour. I was stuck in my hostel's bunker for five days. We had no food to eat, no water to drink."

As the ground troops began moving in and Russian airstrikes devastated city after city, she made her way to Poland on her own along with a group of stranded students, Kritika said, after exercising her franchise at a booth in Varanasi. Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra also voted in this phase.

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"Students who have returned from Ukraine should be allowed to finish their education in India. The fees charged by private medical colleges should be reduced," she added.

Her father, relieved after his daughter's return, said, "I am very happy she is back. For a while, we had thought she would not be able to return."

Thanking the government for bringing back Indians from the bordering countries, he said, "The situation showed the real value of the Indian flag. Students of other countries also carried India's flag to escape from there. The governments - both at the Centre and the states - have done an incredible job."