Students recall harrowing time, 41 back from Ukraine

Patna: It was not an easy journey for Patna’s Pinki Roushan to reach Romania border from Kharkiv Oblast in Ukraine. She had to walk miles without any sleep or much food for the last 4 days and take shelter in dark tunnels and bunkers every time the emergency siren was sounded. But her trauma did not end there as she spent a day near the Ukraine-Romania border in -5 degrees Celsius.
Pinki, who along with 40 other students reached Patna from Bucharest on Tuesday, looked completely exhausted but delighted to see her parents at the airport.“The life in dark bunker without electricity, food and water was a nightmare. We all had panic attacks, anxiety and started crying whenever we heard the bombarding as if it was the last day of our life. Kharkiv is in the eastern side of Ukraine and close to Russia border, so we had been through the worst situation. Whenever the sound of a bomb explosion was heard, it seemed as if it fell on our bunker itself,” she recalled.
A fourth year medical student of Kharkiv National Medical University (KNMU), Pinki said Naveen from Karnataka who got killed in bomb shelling in Kharkiv was her batchmate. “It was shocking for all of us. There are around 3,000 Indian students stranded on the university campus. I left the city on my own risk with a few other batchmates. We walked for more than 16 hours in -5 degrees Celsius without any shelter and food. Due to uncertainties, we could not sleep for the last 4 days. We only survived on water,” she told TOI.
Altogether 41 students evacuated from Ukraine reached Patna on Tuesday via Mumbai and Delhi. So far, 92 students have returned to home in Bihar from Ukraine. Among the returnees on Tuesday, Rajesh Mehta, Aditya Narayan Pandey, Ashish Kumar, Abhinav Arya and Nisha Kumari Poddar are from Patna.
The others included Brajesh Kumar (Supaul), Phantoos Kumar and Mohd Abu Salman of Banka, Mohd Danish Ansari and Dilshad Imam of Siwan, Raj Kumar (Darbhanga), Mohd Raghib, Mohd Maroof and Mohd Shaukat of Purnia, Aquib Hussain, Imran Ali, Amit Kumar and Kashish Rai of Gopalganj, Rai Rashmi Rathi, Raj Sippi and Deepak Kumar Pandey of Bhagalpur, Deenanath Rai and Prince of Vaishali, Shubham Raj and Shambhu Kumar of Khagaria, Ankita Kumari and Aman Pandey of Saran, Mohd Ziaur Rahman and Lakshman of Sitamarhi, Subodh Kumar and Ritu Kumari of Samastipur, Abhijeet Kumar and Manish of Lakhisarai, Anurag and Ved from Saharsa, Nisha Kumari and Shikha Divya of East Champaran, Aman Raj of Gaya, Sneha Keshri of Munger and Abhishek Kumar of Nalanda
Meanwhile, the officials of different districts communicated with the parents of the stranded Bihar students in Ukraine. The contact list of the parents, who approached the state government for help on DMD’s helpline numbers, has been prepared. It shows around 500 students from Bihar still stranded in Ukraine.
Patna DM Chandrashekhar Singh told TOI that at least 66 people have contacted on the helpline numbers in three days, of which 32 had been contacted on Tuesday. “The initiative is to tell the scared parents about the the evacuation plan of the government and steps being taken to bring their kids home and to know the problems faced by their wards in Ukraine,” he said.