Keralite students in Ukraine explore ways for a safe return

Students asked to stay in hostel buildings with underground shelter

As Russia began a full-scale attack on Ukraine late Wednesday, students from India, especially Keralites, are a panicked lot. They woke up on Thursday to the news that major Ukrainian airports, at Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia, have been closed down following Russia’s military attack on key installations. 

Speaking to The Hindu from Kharkiv over phone, Aravind Sreekumar, a second year MBBS student at Kharkiv National Medical University, said the airports’ closure has shocked the students, a majority of whom were preparing to leave the country at the earliest.

“I have booked a ticket in an Air India flight on February 27 at an exorbitant price of ₹60,000. The ticket is usually priced around ₹30,000. But soon, the airports were closed down. I received a message from Air India that my ticket has been cancelled. There is panic on the street with people stocking up essentials. It took around two hours for me to get some essentials from the nearest supermarket. Most of the shelves were empty when we reached there,” said Mr. Sreekumar, who hails from Thalayolaparambu in Kottayam.

The students in the university were advised to stay in hostel buildings where underground shelter is available. Students staying in flats outside the university campus were told to come to the university hostel. Though the local students are equally worried, they are in a better position as they have received basic training at the school level to cope with such a situation in the event of an emergency, said Mr. Sreekumar.

The university authorities have not stopped offline classes for students even now and it is one of the main reasons for the Indian students staying back. “The permission of the university rector is needed to start online classes. Even today, we just received a message from the varsity authorities that there would be no classes on the day,” said Mr. Sreekumar.

“The local people were told by the authorities to seek shelter in underground metros and bunkers in buildings in case of an open attack on civilians. We were earlier told to move to Lviv, a city in western Ukraine bordering Poland. But we are not in a position to shift from here. NoRKA Roots, the field agency of the Department of Non-Resident Keralites (NoRKA), has provided some numbers to contact in the event of an emergency. We are still clueless as to how to get out of this country,” he added.