Telangana students flee Kharkiv amid escalating violence

Kharkiv University students head to Hungary border

Eight students from Telangana and a few more from other Indian States made their way out of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on Monday evening even as Russian invasion and violence has been intensfying. They fled to the nearest metro station even as bombs were going off around them and the air raid siren sounded constantly. 

One of the students, Rahul Daniel Chintam said amid the mayhem, running to a safer place was on the top of their minds, and they could not register where bombs were exploding. “The situation was straight out of a war movie. It was intense,” he said.

Along with others, Rahul reached Lviv, over 800 km away, on Tuesday, and waited to move to the Hungary border. Most of the eight students study at the Kharkiv National Medical University, the same institution that 21-year-old Karnataka boy Naveen S. Gyanagoudar, who lost his life in Russian shelling on Tuesday, attended. The students were heartbroken to know of Naveen’s death. 

“The situation was worsening by the day, so we decided to leave Kharkiv on Monday evening despite the violence all around. We took a chance and fortunately, we are all safe,” said a student.

Although they wanted to leave the country in mid-February when the possibility of war was being heavily discussed, the university administration insisted that they attend classes or pay fees in advance and show air tickets to India before leaving, said the students. The administration reportedly told the students that they were overreacting to war discussions. Besides, prices of air tickets were hiked before the horror unfolded. 

Another group of six Telangana students has managed to move out of Kyiv and were on their way to the Hungary border. While people trying to get out of the war-hit country were heading to borders with Poland and Romania to escape until Monday, these students opted for the Hungary border on Tuesday. 

One of the six students, Gadipa Aneela said Kyiv was “on fire” and wished that all those stuck there would be evacuated. She said that the Ukraine government was doing all it could to evacuate people from violence hotspots. “Transportation by train is free of cost. There were several trains to the western part of the country. They provided food and water too. Everything was provided free of cost,” said Aneela.