Ukraine crisis: After 8km walk from hostel, Indian youth stranded at railway station

BATHINDA: Some students from Muktsar who were stuck in Kharkiv, one of the worst-hit cities of Ukraine in the ongoing invasion by Russia, succeeded in reaching the city’s railway station to catch a train for the western side of the war-torn country.
Dragging bags and lugging backpacks, they reached the railway station on Wednesday morning, after walking a distance of 8kms from their hostels, which they left on Tuesday night.However, even as their families heaved a sigh of relief back in India and deferred their plan of meeting the central government in Delhi, it could not be confirmed whether any of them had boarded any west-bound train yet. Muktsar-based Ranjit Singh, whose daughter Jasmeen Kaur was among those to reach the railway station, said they cancelled their plan to go to Delhi after getting a message from Karan Sandhu, the sponsor of students in Kharkiv who is with the children.
Ranjit said he got a message from his daughter also, about them reaching the railway station. “She and many others have succeeded in reaching Kharkiv railway station. A couple of other families in Muktsar too got messages from their children. In a brief talk, she told me that they faced a challenging time in reaching the railway station. Apart from the threat of shelling from the Russian forces, they had to carry their heavy baggage throughout the journey on foot. Karan was with the kids and the Russian army had even caught him on the suspicion of him distributing arms to people. But, on checking his belongings, the army found that he just had food packets. Now, we pray that our children cross over to either Romania or Poland, so they can return to India,” he said.
The Bathinda deputy commissioner said out of the 18 students from the district trapped in Ukraine, 12 have returned while two others have reached Romania and are expected to return home soon. The government is trying to get the remaining four to safety, he added.
The district administrations are in touch with the central government for the safe return of students stuck in Ukraine. Barnala deputy commissioner Kumar Saurabh Raj said the authorities are regularly in touch with the aggrieved families and the government authorities.