New Delhi, March 4 : An Assamese who has returned to India from Ukraine has complained that the Indian embassy in Kyiv provided no help to him and the other students and that in his case it was a Ukrainian family which fed him for two days when he was hungry. Ashok Kumar Sinha, from Guwahati, was studying in Kharkiv — an educational hub and home to thousands of Indian and African students — when the Russian military invaded Ukraine. “I was in Kharkiv, a war zone. It is a very difficult task to come out,” Sinha told UNI at the Assam Bhavan here as he spoke in detail about all the suffering he underwent when he decided to leave Ukraine. As he began to walk, a Russian air strike took place some three kilometers from a railway station where he was waiting for a train.
“I somehow managed to catch a train amid all the chaos,” he said. Sinha spoke about the widespread shortages of food and water once the advancing Russian military began to shell and pound Kharkiv. Another student who did not wish to be named said: “The Indian Embassy in Ukraine could have done a better job. The situation would have been different if it had taken an initiative before the whole mess started.”
He told UNI: “There was no food for days. I fainted. I was given shelter for two days by a Ukrainian family. “Crossing the Ukrainian border was no easy task. It took around one week for me to do that. Things turned out to be good once you reached Poland.” The Joint Director of Assam Bhavan, D N Loying, told UNI that 85 Assam students have arrived in Delhi so far from Ukraine. He said the number was likely to increase as more were scheduled to arrive here.
With UNI inputs
