"Last night was really bad. There was non-stop bombing nearby, like those long Diwali cracker ladis we light back home in India. We were in the basement, it was very cold and we were petrified that our apartment building would get hit any moment. It is 12 PM in Ukraine right now and a bomb has just exploded as we speak. The war is taking a toll on our bodies, mind and spirit. It has been three days but it feels like forever," said Rishabh Kaushik from Kyiv in a phone call with The Pioneer.
But Kaushik who hails from Dehradun, considers himself lucky that he at least has an apartment to spend a couple of hours in daily before rushing to take refuge in an underground parking lot. For thousands of other foreign students stranded in Ukraine's bunkers and borders without food and water, the situation is worse.
In an act of compassion in the chaos of war, a family originally hailing from Haridwar in Uttarakhand, has opened doors to Kaushik and thirteen other Indian students stuck in Kyiv since Russia's invasion on February 24. For the couple who has two children under ten, these youngsters are now family and the house is theirs as well. "These kind people are a godsend to us. They have been supporting us like we were their own blood. And being together is a huge source of strength to all of us in facing this war crisis," said Kaushik, who studies engineering at Kharkiv National University of Radio-Electronics.
Describing the crisis he went on, "We all are extremely scared. We have not been sleeping, and every little sound makes us freeze in fear. Ever since the invasion, we stay in the basement most of the time. We come to the apartment in the morning only to sleep for around an hour and take bio-breaks. The bombings happen and we run back to the basement. Amidst all this, during the day we try to procure essential supplies. But we feel very fearful going out, knowing we can get killed at any moment. Supplies are depleting fast. The situation is so bad that yesterday after waiting in the queue for more than three hours at a big grocery store, I could get only around 1.5 litres of water- there was no bread.It is the same scenario at ATMs, banks and petrol pumps. ATMs have run out of cash, stores have run out of food and water.”
And in all of this, misinformation is also rearing its head in the war-torn country. According to an Indian student in Ukraine who spoke to this correspondent over the phone, on Saturday night a rumour circulated in Kyiv that the Indian embassy had arranged a special train to take stranded Indian students to the border with Romania for their evacuation. Soon thereafter a huge crowd of such students gathered at the station. But no such train arrived and the disappointed youth dispersed. And just some time later, street fighting and killings took place at that same station.
