Local people were helpful but Ukrainian officials kicked Indians, says UP student on return

Shahjahanpur (UP), Mar 2: Indians trying to leave Ukraine were "kicked" and "dragged" by officials at the country’s border, a student has claimed while adding that the local people were very helpful to them. Anshika, a third-year MBBS student in Ukraine’s Vinnytsia, landed in Delhi at around 11 pm on Tuesday and arrived home in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur on Wednesday.

"I had given up all hopes of returning to India as the situation there was grave. All of us were consoling each other and sharing the pain," Anshika told PTI.

While she is thousands of kilometres away from the war-torn country, the sound of siren blaring gives her the chills bringing back haunting memories of the devastation caused in the city along the Southern Bug river she once called home. According to her father Ameer Singh Yadav, who is a college principal, Anshika cannot stand the sound of a loud horn or a siren.

Talking about her escape, Anshika said, on February 26, she along with 50 other students boarded a bus from Vinnytsia to Chernivtsi and reached there at night after travelling for about 10 hours. Without waiting for dawn, they walked six kilometres to reach the Romanian border. “The sound of firing made us afraid. We were walking towards the Romania border and praying to God.

In the desperation to cross the border, some students fell down and got hurt and were unable to walk. However, they carried on after taking the help of others,” she said. "At the border, the Ukrainian officials made those coming from Ternopil and Ivano cities cross the border first and it was then that someone pushed the students, injuring a girl.

The Romanian Army even fired in the air," she said. "After this, the Ukraine officials kicked the Indian students who had fallen down and they were also dragged,” she said, adding that the citizens of Ukraine, however, were very helpful.

“We then got entry into Romania and were given food, water and a blanket. Their (Romanians) behaviour was much better," she said. PTI