Indian students remain trapped in Sumy for the 11th day running
Indian mission in neighbouring Hungary, where a large number of Indians have crossed over, said it has entered the last lap of evacuations under Operation Ganga
The evacuation of close to 1,000 Indian students trapped in the embatled Ukrainian city of Sumy remains a challenge to the authorities as the heavy fighting goes on.
Heavy shelling and airstrikes continue in the city and on Saturday they dropped plans to go to the Russian border some 50 km away ater a security warning.
Reports said Red Cross provided them with water and essential supplies in co-ordination with the Indian World Forum ater their plight drew international media atention.
Ihor Shapoval, the Red Cross coordinator in Sumy, visited the university campus on Sunday and interacted with students coordinators.
“Yesterday, there was a bomb blast outside our building and there’s no water and electricity here,” Marlyn Shebu said in a video she sent to CNN from Sumy.
“So we are taking snow from here and melting it and drinking it directly without heating it. We don’t know how long we’ll go like this.”
Another stranded student of the Sumy State Medical University, Mehtab Raza, told the BBC they couldn’t step out as it was freezing cold outside and they have no food or water.
Students are also believed to be trapped in other beleaguered cities like Mykolaiv, home to the Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University.
In a series of video messages, students of the university said there were around 80 of them trapped in a bunker in the pounded city without any supplies.
“We’re stuck in bunkers with no proper food, water and washroom facilities,” Bhagavathy, who hails from Tamil Nadu, says in a video.
“We don’t have food, water or any essential supplies and the embassy authorities are not reachable. I’m requesting them to take immediate action.”
Indian authorities say most of the students and already back home but concussion reigns over their actual numbers.
The southern state of Kerala accounts for a major chunk of Indian students, estimated to be around 18,000, mostly pursuing medical education.
The state government received requests from 4,352 students on its online helpline for evacuation but only 1,581 of them have so far reached home on evacuation flights.
India’s foreign ministry said 2,135 more citizens reached back home on Sunday taking the total number of evacuees since the operation began last month to 15,908.
The Indian mission in Ukraine has asked all its citizens who still remain stranded to fill up the details contained in an atached Google Form it tweeted on an “urgent basis.”
“We have a terror atmosphere outside here and we are very scared. We want to go home but no help comes our way,” Diskha Pandey, another student, said in a video.
“They claim they are providing food, water and shelter for Sumy people. There’s nothing coming by. They are not even providing hygiene stuff that all girls need.”
“They are issuing notices on Twiter and Facebook. It’s more than a week now that we are living here like this,” she added.
Indian mission in neighbouring Hungary, where a large number of Indians have crossed over, said it has entered the last lap of evacuations under Operation Ganga.
It asked the students staying in their own accommodations to reach the Hungary City Centre in Budapest.
“Important Announcement: Embassy of India begins its last leg of Operation Ganga flights today,” it tweeted.
The students say they were hearing repeated alerts as the Russians surrounded and began heavy shelling in the eastern city.
The Indian mission has started evacuating 298 students who had reached Pisochyn, 11km away from the besieged city of Kharkiv, where they were asked to move in last week.
Foreign ministry’s official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had on Friday said 900 to 1,000 Indians remain stuck in Pisochyn and more than 700 in Sumy.
“We are not eating enough as there’s no water to go to the washroom. Officials are not responding to our calls,” another girl trapped in a Sumy bunker said on a video call.