Ukraine crisis: 2 Ludhiana girls stuck in Sumy; kin await their evacuation

Tribune News Service

Manav Mander

Ludhiana, March 8

Two Ludhiana girls are among the students stuck in Sumy, located near the Russian border. As per the Ministry of External Affairs, 694 Indian students stranded in Sumy have been evacuated by the Indian Government and the students have left for Poltava from where they will board trains to western Ukraine.

Flights under Operation Ganga are being prepared to bring them home but the families of the two girls from Ludhiana who were stuck in Sumy are still worried and concerned about their safe return as they are unable to connect with them from the past two days.

Residents of Vishwakarma Nagar here, Mansi and Prabhneet are students of Sumy State University and stranded in Sumy. Back home the families are having sleepless nights as the girls are living amidst heavy bombing and shelling. Sumy lies about 48 km from the border with Russia and it is one of the first cities to be attacked by Russia.

Rajinder Singh, father of Mansi, said it was on Sunday that he had a word with his daughter and since then her phone is not reachable. “Either the Internet connection is not there or the phone battery is dead. We are not sure but her phone is not getting connected. We are praying for her safe return and as per the news the government has evacuated the students and we are just waiting for a call from our daughter,” said Mansi’s father.

As told by Mansi, her father shared that the students are living in a bunker in the hostel and they continuously hear shelling and explosions all the time and fighter jets fly fast over the buildings. They are getting only bread to eat. Students have their own stock in the hostel which is also getting depleted now.

“I saw students melting snow to get water and all this is very disturbing for the parents whose children are stuck up in the war-hit country. The temperature there is -9°C and students have started having health issues,” said Rajinder Singh.

Jasbir Singh, father of Prabhneet Kaur, said it has been 10 days that the students are stuck in the hostel basement. “Since morning we have no contact with our daughter and we hope the evacuation goes off well this time because earlier the buses had to go back,” he said.

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