Indian students in Sumy losing patience; embassy promises help

Story by  ATV | Posted by  Aasha Khosa • 2 Years ago
Students of Sumi State Medical University protesting (Twitter)
Students of Sumi State Medical University protesting (Twitter)

 

New Delhi

Around 600 students who are stranded in Sumy, the north eastern state of Ukraine, are showing signs of desperation with no help available to them to move out of the war zone on the 10th days.

The students posted a video in which a couple of students are seen speaking for the rest and are threatening to move on their own towards border. The leader of the group is saying that if any untoward incident was to happen to any of them, the Embassy in Kyiv should be held responsible.

All the students are of Sumy State Medical University, presently living amidst shelling and bombings in war zone area.

 "Today is the tenth day of war. We have come to know that Russia has announced ceasefire to open corridor of border of two cities, one of them is Mariupol which is 600 km from here. Since morning we are hearing sounds of airjets, bombing and street fights. We have waited for long and can't wait any more. We are risking our lives, we are moving towards borders, if anything happens to us, the government should be held accountable," said the students in the video sent to IANS.

They said it was the last video made by them as they started walking towards borders risking their lives amid heavy shelling.

The video apparently created panic in the Indian embassy and those monitoring the situation in Ukraine in the context of the evacuation of the Indians students.

It was shared by journalist Aditya Raj Kaul on Twitter:

"As Russia has opened border, we are moving, just pray for us, we need our government right now," the students said and started chanting 'Bharat Mata ki jai'.

 The students have no water, food and anything which they need to survive. They made several requests but no help reached them. The students said though Russia has opened a humanitarian corridors in two cities those places were 600 km away.

MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi posted on the Twitter that authorities were getting worried about the students in Sumy: He wrote:

However, later the Indian embassy in Kyiv is reported to have contacted them and promised to make arrangement for their evacuation. The students were persuaded to stay put in the University’s hostel till the help arrived.