Bengal students stuck in war-hit Ukraine, Nabanna sets up control room

Kolkata: Many students from Bengal have got stuck in Ukraine giving sleepless nights to their families back home. This has prompted the state government to open a control room at Nabanna so that people in distress can call on these numbers — 033-22143526 and 033-22141070. Senior administrative officers will manage the control room.

Around 80 families have contacted the control room through these numbers till Friday evening.

The state government has already asked all the District Magistrates to ensure that nobody from their district gets stranded in Ukraine amidst the crisis or if at all someone is there, data has to be collected and needs to be submitted at Nabanna. It was leant that most of the students who have gone to Ukraine are undergraduate medical students.

At least three Bengal medical students have already returned on Thursday. But the family members of others stuck in the war-ravaged country are spending sleepless nights. The war has resulted in the closure of the Ukrainian airspace and the cancellation of special flights. As a result, many students have been stranded.

A youth from Purbasthali who went to Ukraine for studies is now underground at the college hostel. He has been hearing the sound of bomb blasts constantly and is facing severe food shortage. Another resident of Durgapur, Neha Khan is also stranded. Several others from Durgapur are also stuck there. Rumki, a resident of the Coke Oven area of Durgapur went to Ukraine in December last year. She has no food, water and winter clothes. Pavel Das, a resident of Islampur in North Dinajpur, went for his medical studies. He is a third-year medical student there.

Pushpak Swarnakar, a resident of Sonarpur in South 24-Parganas, went to Ukraine for medical studies as well. She is a student of Ternopil State Medical University and studies in the fifth year. She spoke to her family members at around 3 am on Friday.

"The border with Poland and other east European countries is 500-600 km from this place (Ternopil). The transport system has virtually collapsed and the few passenger vehicles plying on the road are demanding very high fares, which is beyond the students' financial means," Pushpak added.

Arkoprobho Baidya and Brijesh Ghosh, from Raidighi and Barasat in South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas districts respectively, have taken shelter in the basement of Kyiv Medical College, where they are first-year students.

The two, along with other students from the state and elsewhere in India, said they were asked to move in there on Thursday when sounds of bombing began to be heard intermittently in nearby areas.

"We are very worried. We have been asked to stay here. We were told by the Indian embassy that they were trying to ensure our safe passage. We go out when there is a lull to buy essentials, for which we have to pay very high rates," they said.

Both are in contact with their families as the internet connection is working in their place.

Dipak Sarkar and Bibhas Haldar, two computer science students of an engineering institute at Kharkiv town in northeast Ukraine said as shelling increased they along with more than 100 other Indian students were shifted to the Indian embassy and housed in an underground bunker.