Kerala college students caught in Kharkiv complain of authorities’ chilly response 

Express News Service

ALAPPUZHA: It is freezing chilly exterior, however greater than 100 Malayali college students from varied universities in and round Kharkiv metropolis in Ukraine can’t afford to remain indoors. The sound of shelling and firing is heard from time to time, and the scholars have taken refuge inside a subway practice. A grocery store opened on Saturday morning they usually collected some meals and water and returned to the practice. “It’s minus 4 degree Celsius here. We fear the extreme cold will make us sick, but there is no way to escape from this trap,” stated Lakshmi Priya, fourth-year MBBS pupil of  VN Karazin Kharkiv National University.

“There is hardly any direction for us from the embassy or any officials. The agent who brought us here is asking us to stay where we are. The situation is bad and we can’t move around. Neighbouring countries Romania and Hungary are 1,500-2,000km away and we find it tough to reach there,” stated Lakshmi Priya.

Vighna Nair, a local of Cherthala, stated scarcity of ingesting water is a matter. “Thankfully, there are facilities to recharge our mobile phones at the railway station,” she stated. Jithina of Kayamkulam, who has been residing in a bunker on the Kyiv National Medical University, stated she and others went to the hostel room at 8am when the sound of explosion went down a bit.

“We went and collected the food kept in the hostel room and took a bath. The hostel authorities were constantly asking us to move into the bunker two floors below if any alarm sound was heard. Alarm started ringing after an hour and we ran into the bunker. Soon we started hearing the sound of bombing,” she stated.
“By noon, shelling and bombing increased and they continued till evening. The embassy or other authorities did not respond to our queries or answered our phone calls,” stated Jithina.Students, who research near the border areas, are additionally dealing with a critical disaster.

“They started moving towards the Hungarian border after the embassy asked them to do so. Many students, including from north India, started to walk to the border. It was 50-100km away, but the border did not open for them and they had to stay out in the open for the entire night  in extreme cold conditions. Many students suffered cramps,” stated Gokul G Ok, a local of Kalavoor, Alappuzha, who research at Chernivtsi  National University.