“We are told that the water supply will stop in two to three days. Sitting inside this bunker for 5 days today, the amount of panic around is getting unbearable,” said Reddy Nomula Satya Sreeja, a Vizag girl stranded in the war-torn region of Ukraine.
As the Indian Government is resorting to all possible measures to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine, the war conditions have been making it nearly impossible. Reports claim that students studying in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv are being evacuated to the borders through special trains as the curfew had been lifted post the decision of holding peace talks between the two countries.
The situation in Kharkiv, where Sreeja along with her friends has been studying medicine at the Kharkiv National Medical University, seems to be getting worse. The Russian army who entered the second largest city of the country was however expelled by the Ukrainian army. “We could hear the tankers move around our bunkers, we could feel their presence every second. We are surrounded by all sides. We turned off our phones with the fear of being tracked through GPS,” said a scared Sreeja.
The local authorities have imposed a curfew in Kharkiv between 4 pm to 6 am, during which all students are advised to switch off their phones for safety. “ We are suffering under very critical conditions. We are advised to not go out of the bunker unless it’s an extreme emergency. The situation here is especially very bad for girls with just one washroom and zero supply of essentials,” she added. With just one meal per day, the students have been living in a bunker two floors below ground for 5 days now. It has been reported that the authorities plan to move all the students at once and not in small groups towards the borders, but there seems to be no clarity on the date or time.
This is the update from one of the three bunkers Sreeja is aware of. She also added that seniors from the same college have been hiding in apartments. Nearly 4,000 students from one locality await evacuation, according to the Vizag girl stranded in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry has allegedly ordered its troops to shoot anyone who looks suspicious. The Russian army has been notified by its President to keep all nuclear forces on high alert. With a fear of getting killed by either of the armies, Indian students along with many others have been suffering the wrath of the war between Ukraine and Russia.
The key issue to be discussed at the peace talks to be held on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border is an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of troops from Ukraine. The war which has led to severe humanitarian crises has reported 376 civilian casualties along with 102 deaths after three days of clashes in Ukraine according to a report by the United Nations.
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