‘Our morale is broken, the hostel we stayed in was destroyed in air-strike’: Indian students stuck in Pisochyn share ordeal

Further adding to their plight is lack of communication or any assurances from the Indian authorities on their prospects of returning home. Meanwhile, the second batch of over 100 students from Ukraine reached Ahmedabad Thursday early morning. They were received by state education minister Jitu Vaghani at Circuit House in Gandhinagar. Among 107 students who returned Thursday, 42 were from Surat.

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Back in Pisochyn, Bavendrasinh Chauhan, 19, a third-year medical student from Gujarat who was leading the marching Indian students on Wednesday, said “Most of the students with us including over 350-400 girls have lost hope now. Our morale is broken. How much can we do? So far we had helped support each other mentally and but beyond this point, we are not able to take it. It was heartbreaking to see the news today that the hostel where we had taken refuge was destroyed in an air strike yesterday soon after we left.”

The group of 170 students, Bavendrasinh was leading Wednesday from the bunkers where they had taken refuge for six days before walking down to Kharkiv railway station to board a train as directed by authorities, were disappointed to see the maddening rush at the station making it impossible for them to board a train. Carrying a backpack on their shoulders with a maximum of one food packet and one water bottle, students walked over 20 kms in a single day Wednesday, first from their bunkers to the railway station and then to Pisochyn.

More than 700 students are camping at the Pisochyn base including around 20 from Gujarat while others are from states like Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

“Yesterday alone, we walked over 25 kms while running towards Pisochyn amid bad shelling, missiles being dropped, air strikes and cross firing near us. Curfew was also imposed. It was a horrifying experience. People got scared. Ukrainian soldiers helped us and also covered us for around 4-km distance,” said Ayush Bhatia, 21 a fifth-year medical student from Godhra.

Another 19-year-old student, Akash Dhiman from Delhi, a first year student who has been in Ukraine for the last seven months, told The Indian Express how freshers are the ones losing hope with each passing day.

“We are a group of 15-16 students who have been together for the last one week. When walking to save our lives, it was very scary as there were bombing near us. We tried to run for cover and spread out but our seniors led us and gave us hope and support. Since the last 3-4 days, we have been told that Kharkiv is being given priority but what we are doing is running from one safe house to another to save our lives. Students have lost hope and the situation is very bad,” said Akash.

Students complain about lack of communication and help in seeking any kind of information from Indian authorities.

“We learnt from a tweet that we had to run to one of the camps within three hours which looked very difficult in the wake of no further information on the directions. Many students panicked and started crying. We also called Indian authorities on the helpline numbers for Operation Ganga available on social media but instead of any help we are asked irrelevant questions like how we spelt our names. Despite our repeated requests to help guide the way forward, about curfew details, we were asked irrelevant details,” Bavendrasinh told The Indian Express..

Students have also complained of discrimination in boarding trains. “When we reached the Kharkiv railway station at 8 in the morning, shelling started. We ran for a bunker, at an underground metro station nearby, and then returned to the station again to see that Indians and Africans were not allowed to board the train,” said Ayush.

Pleading to communicate their plight to Indian authorities, students said that Pisochyn is their last hope. “Everyone’s morale is badly shaken. If nothing happens quickly, we will completely break down. There is no help from the embassy, no communication. We have been repeatedly told that the authorities have informed us to leave in advance but was that so easy. There is no one from the embassy here at the camp nor have we heard from anyone to even offer some kind of emotional support and assurances. Also, all the numbers shared by authorities for help are turning out to be either fake or not working,” Harsh Valand, a sixth-year student from Nadiad in Gujarat told The Indian Express.

Waiting to return home, barely two months short of his medical degree, Harsh said the situation is life-threatening in every sense. “So far, we were supporting our juniors, but now we have lost all hopes. Please communicate this to the authorities back home and help us return home with our families.”