Jittery students send SOS

Hyderabad: The situation in Kharkiv is horrifying and students are fast losing hope as the situation is getting worse with the death of Naveen Gyangoudar, a from Karnataka. It is still not known how and who would take charge of Naveen's body that is lying in the morgue and how the mortal remains would be brought to India.

Srikanth, a fourth-year medical student who is a classmate and roommate of Naveen, in an exclusive interview to 'India Today' from inside a bunker, said that Naveen had gone out to buy food as curfew was lifted from 6 am. He did not inform anyone. The supermarket was very close to the bunker in which they spent the night. He said they did not have any food since night.

In all, there were about four Indians in the bunker and all of them were students. The rush before supermarkets is huge and it takes about two hours to buy essentials.

He said as Naveen did not return, he tried contacting him over mobile but a woman took the call and said that there was an explosion and the owner of this mobile was dead and his body was being taken to a morgue.

He said this news came as a shock to them and in fact now all of them are panicky since they do not know what was in store for them. There was too much of bombing outside. He said though the Indian embassy says they will be evacuated, no one knows when and how. The western border is about 2,000 km from Kharkiv which is under heavy bombing. The morning explosion which claimed the life of Naveen took place even without a siren warning.

He further said the Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said, "All civilians in the city can freely leave the Ukrainian capital along the Kyiv-Vasylkiv highway. This direction is open and safe." Immediately thereafter, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine asked the stranded nationals to leave Kyiv immediately by any means. But the big question is how to move out. A few trains are being operated but there is absolute scramble and it is impossible to get into them. There is no other transport facility available, he added.