Tirupati: Crossing border turns a Herculean task

Tirupati: Walking for almost 10-15 kilometre, standing for more than 12 hours at the borders amid -6 to -7 degrees temperature, travelling almost for a week reach home country, no proper food, no sleep, uncertainty over their safety, worries about future of education….This is the plight of Indian students stranded in Ukraine in returning back to reach their parents here.

Finally, the medicos pursuing education in Ukraine have reached the lap of their parents at Tirupati airport amid rousing reception on Friday.

Along with their parents and relatives, BJP leaders also cheered the students by waving Indian flags at them which relieved the mental tension and agony that lasted for almost a week since they left their places in Ukraine amid ongoing war with Russia.

They reached New Delhi from Bucharest in Romania after the Indian government and the embassy there helped them in sending them to India. In Delhi, AP government officials took care of them and sent them to Tirupati via Hyderabad where they could finally smile seeing their loved ones.

When The Hans India tried to elicit some of their experiences before reaching the city, they explained their nightmare in crossing the border. A fifth year MBBS student in Ivano Frankivsk city in Ukraine from Tirupati N Umesh said that he started in his city on February 27 and could cross the border on February 28 after standing in the queue line for 13 hours amid severe snowfall.

In fact, students in their hurry to cross the border have not moved systematically in queue lines till they understood that it will only result in more delay. Once the borders were crossed, Romanian police and embassy helped a lot and even border police gave them food and water. There were some allegations of racism too in some parts, particularly after India abstained from voting in the UN Security Council.

As their friends in eastern parts of Ukraine are in deep distress, having no food and sleep, Umesh said that they were praying for their safety sincerely. Another student from Tirupati in Chernivtsi Oblast in Ukraine, P Mouli, said that cars were stranded in line for about 20-30 km to reach the border near Romania. Fortunately, he along with three other friends took some shortest routes and walked for about 4-5 km to reach there.

The Indian government took care of them at Bucharest where they stayed for two days. When they were taken to the airport, there were 1,800 students hurrying to board the flights. Though their city was not that dangerous initially, injured soldiers started reaching there with which they too were given alert warnings.

He is studying sixth year MBBS there which will be completed in just a few months. But the university has assured them of their degrees. The Deans were also so cooperative and helped them in severe cold at all times. The six hour ceasefire of war helped several students in Eastern parts too to move on to safer places.

Meanwhile, in Tirupati, BJP leaders G Bhanuprakash Reddy, Samanchi Srinivas, Kola Anand, Varaprasad and others have welcomed the students at the airport and lauded the Indian government's initiative in bringing the Indians back to the country.