For Indian students, an anxious wait near Ukraine's Russian border

According to one of the students at Sumy State University who spoke over the phone, there was no indication from the ministry of external affairs (MEA) on the evacuation plans until Sunday night.

“We have been advised to switch off our lights and be prepared to run into a bunker when we hear a siren," said Niranjana Santosh, a 22-year-old from Thrissur in Kerala, who came here for medical studies five years ago.

The students have been sharing images of bombings and videos of them in bunkers on social media and pleading for help from the MEA, which has advised them to stay safe.

On Sunday, one of the students said the “situation was getting worse again".

The Indian embassy in Kyiv on Sunday evening cautioned students against venturing out.

“Based on the inputs, intense fighting is underway in Kharkiv, Sumy and Kyiv. It is reiterated, Indian nationals in these cities and other cities where curfew has been applied are not advised to venture towards railway stations until curfew has been lifted and considerable civilian movements are renewed," an MEA statement said.

The students are scared and desperate for help, Santosh said, adding they have little food left. “Our contractors are trying to feed us; they have found a little food, which we can adjust for some days," she said.

News reports from Ukraine speak of intense battles in Sumy and Kharkiv.

Sumy’s municipal administration has urged residents to stay home as fighting erupted on its streets, Reuters reported on Saturday.

The Sumy State University has shut all classes.

“Due to the introduction of martial law in Ukraine, from 26 February, the educational process at Sumy State University was stopped, and the holidays were announced for two weeks, until 13 March inclusive. Any changes in the educational process will be announced additionally on the official website of the university and official channels on social networks. All university employees (except for the infrastructure facilities involved in life support) are transferred to remote operations", the university said in a statement.

The students have been told that the closest city for their evacuation lies in Russia. India’s evacuation mission Operation Ganga has been supporting its nationals who have walked to Ukraine’s western borders of Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, from where 4,000 students were evacuated until Sunday. Most of the extra flights deployed to bring back the students are flying to these countries. MEA has not yet shared plans about evacuating those in Ukraine’s eastern cities bordering Russia.

According to a Press Trust of India report, the total number of Indian students in Ukraine could be as high as 40,000.

Intense competition for medical seats within India and steep fees charged by private colleges have forced several Indian students to seek education in countries such as Ukraine, China, Russia and the Philippines.

A student from the Sumy state university told Mint that the cost of studying, including tuition and living expenses, is ₹5 lakh per annum, while in India, the same student would have paid ₹10 lakh to ₹1 crore in a private medical college.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has discouraged prospective medical students from studying in “smaller countries" and called for more private medical colleges in India. However, some people from the medical profession in India said the statement misses the systemic issues plaguing medical education in India.