After days of ordeal, 2 Kapurthala lads cross Ukraine border

Jalandhar, March 1

After days of travelling to the Rava-Ruska, Shehyni and Slovakian borders and checkpoints only to be denied an exit, Kapurthala lad Akarsh Dhingra, who had started his tumultuous journey from Poltava on February 23 night, finally reached Poland this morning. A photograph of him looking out of a train window brought solace to his family that had been awaiting his safe passage out of war-torn Ukraine.

Also, Kapurthala lad Shivam Baweja, who was among those stuck at a school near the Indian Embassy at Kyiv, made it out safely today.

Amidst no response from the Indian Embassy, students stuck at a school near the embassy in Kyiv had on Monday boarded a train to Kovel to cross over to Poland.

Akarsh, who had walked 80 km back and forth from Lviv to Rava-Ruska, Shehyni and Slovakian borders for two days, had spent the night of February 27 and 28 at the Lviv station after failing to board trains heading to the western border, owing to “preferential” treatment to Ukrainians.

Staying put at Lviv, he finally boarded a train to Slovakia yesterday. With no passage available for Indian students there again, he returned to Lviv and boarded another train to the Polish border (from where he had already returned twice).

Meanwhile, Akarsh’s brother Saksham and Shivam’s sister Mehak confirmed that both of them had crossed the border. —