Relief, joy for families of students returning from Ukraine

Shilpa P. | NT

It was a huge relief for Hassan-based student Arjun Vasanth and five others from the State and their families, after they reached Kempegowda international airport in Bengaluru early Saturday. They were part of the last batch of students evacuated from Sumy city of Ukraine under Operation Ganga.

Arjun, who was doing his seventh semester MBBS at Sumy State University, got stranded after the Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine on February 24. He along with 700 other Indian students had to remain holed up in Sumy city.

Now all the 572 students from Karnataka, including 31 from Mysuru, who were studying in Ukraine, have returned, but they are now anxious about continuing their studies. They hope the government will provide them academic support.

For Arjun’s parents it was a welcome relief from anxious days and sleepless nights. His father, Vasanth Kumar, owns a pharmacy business and mother Indiramma, is a headmistress in a highschool. His brother Raghavendra Y V, owns an IT company in Mysuru.

A relieved Arjun told News Trail, “We could see airstrikes and firings. We stayed in bunkers (which were like store rooms with no facilities) most of the time when the weather outside was minus degrees. We faced food shortage, as the food we stocked started getting over. But we were helped with bread and eggs by college authorities. After Sumy electric plant was bombed, there was no electricity and water, and we could not cook. We even struggled to charge our phones to stay in touch with distressed families and use the washroom. At last we were evacuated on March 8 and we reached Poland the next day. It was a huge relief to have been evacuated from Ukraine, but I am anxious about my academic future now,” he said.

Kappannaiah H M, a security supervisor at a private company in Mysuru, and his wife H K Prema at Hunsur were happy to receive their son Prajwal S K. But he is upset that he had just a semester left to complete the third year of the MBBS course at Zaporizhzhia State Medical University in Ukraine.

Kappannaiah told News Trail, “Prajwal had qualified for the All India NEET exam after the second PUC. But for a seat in a private medical college, we were supposed to spend Rs 1.5-2 crore. Whereas for a medical college seat in Ukraine, it was only Rs 45 lakh. We had sold a small piece of land, pledged my wife’s jewels, and borrowed money for high interest from private money lenders. We have already spent Rs 20 lakh.”

He said that ten days before the war began, his college authorities had alerted the students. “But by then the cost of a flight ticket to India from there was Rs 1.20 lakh. And they were asked to return within 15 days after the conflict ended. Yet I had booked a ticket for Rs 60,000 for March 1. But the war broke out before that and he got stranded, and had to stay in bunkers. At last he was evacuated and put on a train from there. But he had to walk at least 15 km to reach Hungary,” he said.

Kappannaiah thanked the authorities for bringing home the stranded students from Ukraine. “There are 572 students from the state, who were evacuated from Ukraine. This is not a big number. So the government must help these students get seats in professional colleges here,” he appealed.

Rakshith Daraneshwara at Dodda Hejjur village in Hunsur taluk in Mysuru district, was evacuated from Karkiv in Ukraine. He said, “I had just got admitted to first year MBBS last month, on 12 February in Karkiv international university. After PUC, I had cleared NEET but didn’t get a seat anywhere in India. We were told that we may have to spend Rs 40-45 lakh in Ukraine to study MBBS, so I went there last week. My father runs a medical shop and we have already spent Rs 12-15 lakh for admission and other expenses. Now I am worried about my academic future.”

He said three days before the war began, they were told to make arrangements to return. “But they also said that offline classes would be conducted. As we risked missing practical classes, we stayed back. Almost all the time, we stayed in bunkers. And we were allowed to go to hostel rooms only for a few minutes to freshen up. We were just provided one meal a day from the hostel mess. We managed with some snacks we had stocked up. Since there was no adequate facility to charge mobiles, we used to switch off phones and switched on only for a few minutes to inform parents about our safety. Parents were more worried about our safety, after our senior Naveen died,” he said.

When they were asked to leave the city, they had to walk nearly 10 km to reach the railway station. Walking was scary and at the Karkiv railway station, Ukrainians fleeing their country were given preference. After waiting for five hours, we walked another 20km to reach a village. We stayed there in a sch