When the noise of bomb blasts got louder and shelling became frequent in Ukraine, Indian students, most of whom had gone to the country to pursue their MBBS, were left with no option but to stay hidden under bunkers. A week later, they were still waiting for help to arrive.
This is when a group of Indian doctors took charge, and helped these students escape from Ukraine. They shared the photos with the Indian embassy officials who, in turn, uploaded them on social media platforms as "efforts of the government".
Karanpal Singh Sandhu, a 36-year-old doctor in Ukraine, who runs an education consultancy - Edu Pedia Overseas- that helps students obtain admissions in colleges across Europe, said that their efforts led to the evacuation of around 3,000 Indian students from Ukraine. This, he said, was "without any help from the Indian Embassy".
"No Help From Embassy"
The doctor said that the students were not getting any help from the embassy. "The Indian Embassy contacted us, not to offer help, but only to ask for information on students - their stay and food," said Sandhu.
On February 24, when people in Ukraine woke up to the sounds of blasts, these doctors took charge owing to lack of proper directions. They sent students to hostel and Metro bunkers, where they had to spend almost a week.
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The situation inside the bunkers were terrible. There weren't any washrooms and the overcrowded spaces soon got dirty. "We all got together, including the students, to clean it several times," he said.
"We didn't have any option. We couldn't help them escape as the fight was on roads in Kharkiv," Sandhu told BOOM.
For food, they had to head to nearby villages and bribe people to let them take food in bulk. "In villages, they are only allowed to give one bag of potatoes and one bread. We tried to bribe someone and got enough food that would have lasted us two weeks," he said, adding that he hoped they wouldn't have to stay that long.
"It's saddening to see the pictures posted by the embassy," he said.
The doctor said that the photos they sent to the embassy officials were passed off as the efforts of the Indian government.
One example of such tweets, Sandhu mentioned, is below where the official Twitter account of the Embassy of India in Kyiv posted photos of students from Pesochin, making their way out of Ukraine. Pesochin is a settlement on the outskirts of Kharkiv, a city in eastern Ukraine, which lies 40 km from the Russian border.
"We don't want credit, but we have been crying to them asking for help for two weeks. We eventually got the children out of there without any help. We clicked and shared pictures of them leaving with the embassy and they shared photos on platforms claiming credit," Sandhu said.
Another photo shared by the same handle showed bottles of water and packets of biscuits and other edibles. "Despite major adversities, delivered food and water to our students in Pisochyn, Kharkiv," read the tweet.
Sandhu said that the photo of the water bottles are 'fake'. "They are not from Ukraine," he said. Regarding the food, he said that it was arranged by the doctors and that they never got anything from the embassy.
BOOM has reached out to the Indian embassy in Ukraine but there has been no response from them yet.
The doctors in Ukraine arranged for buses for students to go to Romania and Poland borders when not many drivers were ready to go. "We called everyone we knew in Ukarine. The bus drivers were asking for $300-$600 per student. We somehow managed and evacuated around 800 students in three days."
The doctor told BOOM that the Indian embassy did do two things— promised to send money later for the expenses and assured that the place they were put up in Kharkiv wouldn't be bombed.
"There Was No Definitive Advisory From The Govt"
Sandhu, who has been living in Ukraine for the past two decades, criticised the trolling the students faced on social media when it was discovered that there were thousands of Indian students stranded in the war-torn country.
"There was no definitive advisory from the government and the universities here did not advise students to leave either. We asked students to leave then, but very few flights were available and those started by the government were too expensive for the students," said Sandhu.
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The flight arranged by the embassy were unaffordable, said one of the students. "Flights to India arranged for February 22, 24 and 26 were priced at over Rs 1 lakh. Most students couldn't afford that," said Rohit Velagapudi, 24, MBBS student.
After a few days of "heavy shelling", Sandhu and the other doctors decided to walk with 1,200 students from bunkers to Kharkiv railway station, a distance of 13-14 kms. "The station was too crowded. In the first train, somehow 200 students got in. But after that, nobody could as there was an order that only women and children could board," said Sandhu.
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Since the students had been out in the cold for long, the doctors looked for a warmer place for them. The Kharkiv Medical University helped and offered up their sanatorium.
"The rest of the students then had to walk back to the sanatorium. But it was sheer luck that students could walk all the way from Kharkiv station to the university in -5 degrees Celsius, which can't be done on usual days. It took them three hours," Sandhu told BOOM.
The students took busses after they walked to the sanatorium, to cross Ukraine. Once they were out, they were evacuated safely.