Thakurpukur student alleges no word from embassy, too few buses sent for evacuation

A number of Indian students have been stuck since Wednesday in a hotel in Pisochyn, near Kharkiv, waiting for the Indian embassy in Ukraine to rescue them.

Till late on Friday evening (Indian time), one of the students said, they were yet to hear from the embassy about whether they would be taken to a safe place.

Soumya Kanti Biswas, from Thakurpukur, said the embassy had sent some buses to the hotel to take stranded students to Lviv, near the Poland border, more than 1,000km from Pisochyn. But the buses, he said, were too few to evacuate all.

“We are in a desperate situation. Some students want to walk back again to Kharkiv railway station. But it’s snowing and it is unlikely that we'll be able to board a train. Also, I have blisters on my feet and cannot walk 12km (to the station),” the medical student said on Friday.

“We have been trying to call the helpline numbers of the embassy but have been unable to get in touch with them.”

He said that on Wednesday, a group of around 300 students had walked 12km amid shelling from Kharkiv railway station to Pisochyn.

Before they had set out for Pisochyn, the students had tried in vain to board a train for Lviv at Kharkiv. “Only Ukrainians were given priority at the station,” Soumya said.

“The next day, a person from an agency that brings medical students from India arrived in a car and said buses would be provided by the embassy. However, only first-year students would be allowed to board. They said others would be allowed if they paid $500 each. We don't have that much money,” he said.