Chaotic scenes at Kharkiv station as thousands jostle to board train to Lviv

Tribune News Service

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, March 2

Tuesday’s bombardment and death of a Karnataka student standing in a queue outside a grocery store in Kharkiv has spread panic amongst other students stuck there. The students have now started leaving the war-ravaged Kharkiv at their own risk and finding alternatives to reach the borders of Poland and Romania at the earliest.

Jalandhar’s Milap Singh’s story is also no different. He says that after having spent nearly eight days at the basement of his hostel building near Kharkiv Medical University, they finally decided to step out and take the risk. “We made all attempts to seek help from the Indian embassy, Khalsa Aid and other NGOs, but to no avail. As we were stuck in the middle of the war and there was frequent bombing and shelling, no one was ready to help us,” he said.

He further said that the death of a Karnataka student in Kharkiv on Tuesday and the news of a big Russian convoy heading towards Ukraine further escalated their tension and it was the moment they decided to step out rather than sitting and waiting for the missile to hit their bunker.

“I and six of my friends, of which four belong to Punjab and two Haryana, walked for nearly 8-9 km to reach the Kharkiv rail station. We were really scared but deep down the hope to meet our families kept us moving,” said Milap, adding that what they witnessed at the rail station in Kharkiv was something unbelievable.

He said there were thousands of Indian students at the railway station and thousands more from other countries and the locals of Ukraine. “It was a stampede-like-situation, the people were really falling over each other,” he added.

He said the 8-km journey on foot to the railway station from their bunker was nothing in front of the struggle they had to board a train to Lviv. “Everyone was desperate to board the train and leave Kharkiv. Besides, the authorities there were giving preference to children, ladies and locals, so it was after a lot of struggle. We got tickets for Lviv,” he added.

Meanwhile, the family of Milap Singh heaved a sigh of relief on Wednesday as they got the news of their son finally leaving Kharkiv and making it to Lviv safely. “He’s about to reach the Poland border in the next few hours. I just can’t express what I am feeling right now. All we want is to see him back with us,” said Milap’s father, Ranbir Singh, adding that his son’s friend at Poland border have told him that situation at Poland border has improved. So it won’t take him much time to cross over.

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