Bengal students narrate ordeal after returning from Ukraine
kolkata/balurghat: Arka Samaddar, who returned to his house in Nadia's Santipur on Saturday night, from war-hit Ukraine recollected the trauma he had undergone there while narrating his ordeal on Sunday.
A first-year medical student at a university in Ukraine, Samaddar said it was a nerve wracking experience to live in a place where heavy shelling is taking place. "On February 28, I left the university and managed to catch a train. I traveled through a number of places before reaching Hungary. Then I reached Budapest, the capital of Hungary. From there I came to Delhi and then to Kolkata. Bombing was taking place where I took shelter initially. There was no food and drinking water," Arka said.
He went to Ukraine in December last year to pursue undergraduate medical course. Many undergraduate medical students returned to the city on Sunday afternoon. Most of them had faced a similar experience. Most of them walked over 20 km to cross over to another country. State government arranged cabs for them at Calcutta airport.
Nur Hassan, a student from Kaliachak in Malda, recalled how he along with 50 other students from India, had to hire a bus on March 1 from his institute in Kyiv to reach the Romanian border after undergoing numerous checks by the Ukrainian army. "For three days, we spent hours in a bunker at our medical college literally going without food and water and hearing sounds of constant bombardment. As time was running out, we requisitioned buses on our own and left for the Ukraine-Romanian border. We were stranded there for hours by the Ukraine army," he said.
After crossing the border, the Indian embassy, with help from the Romanian government, facilitated their return journey to New Delhi. Another student from Alipurduar in North Bengal, Gaurav Banik said "I feel so relieved after coming back to my native place on Thursday but am worried about the safety of others who are stranded there."
Banik, a fifth-year student of Kharkiv National Medical University, said he along with others had to wait for an entire day before getting onto a bus. "Despite having all the travel documents, the journey was delayed by several hours at the Ukraine-Poland border before we were finally allowed by the forces, to cross over to the other side. "It was a terrible sight - thousands of Ukrainian families, including elderly and women, scrambling to cross over along with the foreign nationals. The Ukrainian security forces were at times firing in the air to bring discipline among the people in the queue. We heaved a sigh of relief after boarding the aircraft."
Two girl students from South Dinajpur, who had been studying in the medical stream in Ukraine got stuck there due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. They returned to New Delhi safely by the evacuation flight on Saturday. Jayati Roy from Balurghat and Ishita Rahman from Banshihari, who had made the journey across the border from Ukraine to Romania and Hungary before being evacuated by the Indian government, reached New Delhi.
The worried parents of the duo had received the good news already from the block administration of Balurghat and Banshihari.
Both Jayati and Ishita are now staying in Banga Bhavan in New Delhi along with 60 others, who have been studying in different medical universities of Ukraine over the past three-four years.
Block Development Officer (BDO) of Banshihari Sudeshna Paul went to the residence of Ishita in Banshihari to provide the message of her return to India to her parents. Her father Abdur Rahman said: "I have already talked to my daughter after her return to New Delhi. She is now staying safe in Banga Bhavan there. I am being informed that my daughter will return to Kolkata through a special flight shortly by the initiative of the state government."
