“The girls were asked to board first. After that he was asked to get down. Our local coordinators informed us that firing has started again on the routes through which the students will be evacuated,” said student Arif Mahfouz Siddiqui from Assam over phone from the city, about 60 km from the Russian border.
Indian officials told him on Sunday night that transport would be available for his evacuation and that he should leave ‘quietly’. Russia A ceasefire was announced the next morning to open humanitarian corridors for those trapped in war zones.
The students packed their bags and waited about three hours in the designated open area of the Sumy State University campus, but only four buses arrived to take them to Poltava, about 165 km away in central Ukraine, from where an embassy team was responsible for their evacuation. will coordinate. “He said only girls can board. After 150 girls came inside, they were also asked to step down, saying the ceasefire would end soon,” said Viraj Walde from Nagpur.
Tapan Kumar Bugudai The Odisha official said, “There was no bombing or firing in our area on Monday. But ceasefire was violated at some places and due to this our evacuation plan could not be implemented. We were so excited to board the buses and leave the war zone after 12 harsh days here, but all in vain. ,
As the little window of hope closed on them, the students entered their shelters, where food supplies were running low and there was no electricity or water. Maheshwari Tetarwal from Rajasthan said, “Now, we are back in the hostel, brimming with steamed rice and biscuits all along.”
“I hope the firing will stop and we will be given a safe way to reach the border and go home. We have gone through a lot and are very tired and scared,” said KS Devanarayana from Kerala.
Fellow students fleeing the other eastern troubled city of Kharkiv have crossed the border and expressed hope that people in Sumy will be out soon. Shabnam Begum from Bengal, who was among the 1,000 students evacuated from Kharkiv, said, “The journey was a nightmare, but I am glad we covered it completely.” He was hit by shrapnel from a shell on a 12 km walk to the train station in Pisochin, on the edge of Kharkiv.
(Inputs from Kangkan Kalita in Guwahati, Shishir Arya in Nagpur, Hemant Pradhan in Bhubaneswar, Parul Kulshrestha in Jaipur and Tamaghana Banerjee in Kolkata)
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