Many were previously unwilling to leave Ukraine and take a break from the much-anticipated offline classes in the aftermath of the pandemic, but as the Russia-Ukraine war-fight reaches new heights, they are not taking any chances.
First year student Sneh Teacher is studying at Ternopil National Medical University located in the far western region of the country. Due to the geographical situation away from Russia, he did not see any turmoil or panic in his area and even in Kiev, where he reached a few hours before flying on Wednesday evening. Sneh and four other friends said “everything is normal”, after traveling about 500 km by train from Ternopil to Kiev. “Nothing looks volatile inside Ukraine today. But for our safety the embassy has advised us to leave the country. Our parents have also asked us to come back home. Our classes will be held online. This option was provided by the University, “The teacher told TOI a few hours before leaving the country. It is 8.5 hours a long flight for New Delhi.
Students of all Indian or Assam are not returning home, and for Guwahati’s boy, leaving Ukraine is a painful moment when studies were going well.
“The embassy asked all non-essential personnel and students, if possible, to leave,” he said. Sneh and her friends have paid for the flight ticket as they could not book the ticket sent by the Indian government.
Chiranjeeb Deka of the same university is also leaving by the same flight. He said that he is facing only one problem that the flight stamps are difficult to come because the number of students wishing to return is quite high. “Apart from this, the price of air tickets in the clock of this crisis is very high,” he said. “People are busy with their normal lives, buses and trains are working as usual,” Chiranjeeb said.
His batchmate Daisy Midhi said that there is no panic situation in the terronopil region, but his parents are worried about the situation like war.
About 850 km away, another student of Assam of Nagarbera in Kamrup District, Jakaria ATKur Rahan Hussain is doing MBBS in Sumi State University in Sumi City, which is in the northwater part of Ukraine. Zakaria also said that the situation in Sumi is “quite normal”, although his university informed that it will hold online classes for students wanting to return home by May 1, so they have decided to return to India on February 25.
Zakaria is among hundreds of foreign students who study in Ukraine because it is much cheaper than studying medicine in other private colleges in India. It is just 60 km from the Ukraine-Russian border, but about 500 km from the Donbass region that Russia recently declared independent. “We are going about our daily lives like attending classes, going to the supermarket and so on,” he said.
But some final year’s medical students said that they are not ready to sacrifice their careers and will end up in Ukraine. Arif Mahfuz Siddiqui of Nagarbad village is a student who is not ready to return. “We are still participating in offline classes. I’m not going home because this is my last year. So if I go home, I have to come back before April 1. University can organize online classes till April 1 for sixth year. The exams are always offline, “he said.
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