At Kharkiv, students take refuge in metro bunkers

Tribune News Service

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, February 27

Kapurthala resident Komalpreet Kaur (21), a medical student of the Kharkiv University, is stuck at a metro station bunker for the past few days with limited supply of food and water. Kharkiv has majority of Indian medical students who belong to Punjab. The ordeal of students stuck at tube stations is getting worse every day, as the war is escalating and shelling is increasing.

Kharkiv is 1,400 km from Poland and 750 km from the border of Romania. Children are stuck there. They can’t move about to get food. They don’t have money. — Kuldeep Singh, stranded student’s father

A fresh bout of bombing near Kharkiv has forced the students to relegate to hideouts, as gates of the metro stations have been shut.

Komalpreet’s father Kuldeep Singh says, “Kharkiv is 1,400 km from Poland and 750 km from the border of Romania. Children are stuck there. They can’t move about to get food. They don’t have money. The embassy has not been responding. How do we know our children are safe?”

At the bunker, along with Komal, there are 3,000-4,000 persons, of whom 500 are students. Some students are from Hoshiarpur and periphery areas. “I talk to my daughter several times a day. The children stranded there don’t have food or money. They sleep on the floor. The only clothes they have are the ones they are wearing,” says Kuldeep.

Komal had gone home day before yesterday, and got stuck in the bunker after a bout of shelling. She could have come back yesterday. However, with the reports of tanks arriving in their vicinity, going out is not possible any more.

The flight ticket prices have skyrocketed, and the students’ calls are going unanswered by the embassy. Some forms have been floated to collect data, but nothing more is being done. “What will our children do? At least food should be arranged for them.”

Kuldeep Singh adds: “My daughter told me some of their friends tried reaching the border. However, going to the border is even worse. Students have to sleep in bone-chilling cold accompanied by snow and inclement weather conditions. It is unsafe either way.”

Dr Navdeep, sister of Garshankar resident Balkar Singh (23), a medical student at the Kharkiv University, says, “The embassy talks of evacuations from the Western Ukraine, but thousands of students are stuck in the Eastern Ukraine. Last night, the Russian army reached Kharkiv. There was an attack 4 km away from the bunker where my brother is stuck. Tanks are roaming on the roads. The government should make a plan to evacuate students from the East soon. An alert has been sounded and these students can’t even move out. How will they reach the Western side?”

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