Ukraine crisis: Moodbidri student stands for 17 hours in train to reach Poland

Ukraine crisis: Moodbidri student stands for 17 hours in train to reach Poland

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, March 6, 2022: Pavan Kumar from Moodbidri among the students travelled in a train standing for almost 17 hours to the Poland border and crossed over on foot. Throughout the 17-hour journey, they were forced to stand as the train was fully crowded leaving no space to sit. He returned from Ukraine on Friday.

As many as eight students hailing from Mangaluru and one from Moodbidri taluk have boarded the flight to Delhi. Namisha from Moodbidri taluk is likely to reach the Romania border tonight. Sheikh Mohammed Taha from Mangaluru has reached Lviv and has borded bus to Poland, the Dakshina Kannada district administration said.

Rohan Bagli, 24, from Brahmavara, who was stranded in Kharkiv of Ukraine, returned to his hometown on Saturday. Glenwill Fernandes, the last remaining stranded student from Udupi district, is on his way to the Hungary border.

Mr. Bagli, son of Dhananjaya, a scientist at Krishi Vijnan Kendra Brahmavara, returned from Poland to New Dehli on Friday. On Saturday, he came to Brahmavar.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Bagli said the authorities at Kharkiv National Medical University had asked students not to worry about war as the threat from Russia existed for the last eight years. But he and other students panicked when Russian troops started bombing. ‘‘We had no ways to escape as Indian Embassy advisories limited to mention about moving to bunkers soon after air raid sirens ring out,” he said.

After five days the shelling intensified in Kharkiv and then they decided to move to Lviv.

The Indian Embassy, he said, assisted them in every way possible following war. The evacuation process would have been easy if the Ukraine Embassy in India had informed early about the deteriorating relation of Ukraine and Russia to Indian Government.

Mr. Bagli said Naveen from Haveri, who died from shelling in Kharkiv, was his roommate and a junior in the course. “I was leaving from Kharkiv when I came to know about his killing,” he said.

The other student, Mr. Fernandes, 19, boarded, at 6.30 p.m., a bus in which students from Pesochyn were taken to Poltava and then to the Hungary border. Mr. Fernandes is likely to take a flight to India from Budapest on Sunday.

Anifred Ridley D’Souza, 20, has already reached Budapest airport, the Udupi district administration said.

Pavan Kumar from Moodbidri said , “We did not have enough food and basic facilities. Amid severe cold, we travelled in a train standing for almost 17 hours to the Poland border and crossed over on foot. We had our final examination on May 22, and, since we did not know the severity of the war, we could not move out on time” he said.