5 From Odisha Among Several Students Still Stranded In Ukraine’s Sumy

Bhubaneswar: With Operation Ganga entering its last leg, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine, in a tweet, on Sunday asked stranded Indians to fill up a Google form urgently with their mobile number and location.

After evacuating Indians from strife-torn Kharkiv, the Ministry of External Affairs has shifted focus to another eastern Ukrainian city, where dozens of students from Sumy State University have pleaded for help from the Indian government. “Main focus is on Sumy now, the challenge remains ongoing violence and lack of transportation. The best option would be a ceasefire,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

According to a report published in TNIE, five students from Odisha are stuck in this northeastern town without food and water. The five – Smruti Ranjan Nayak, Gouri Shankar Parida, Tapan Kumar Bugudai, Biswajit Das, and Suman Mahanta – have taken shelter in the basements of hostel 3 of the Sumy University and are waiting for help with Russian forces having destroyed the bridge and railway links to Kharkiv and Kyiv.

Smruti belongs to Keonjhar and Gouri, Tapan and Biswajit are from Balasore while Suman hails from Bhubaneswar but his parents are based in Kolkata now, the report said.

When the Indian students, through a video message on Saturday morning, said they are no longer willing to wait for the Indian government to safely escort them and are risking a walk to the Russian border, the Indian Embassy asked them not to leave and assured them about buses being arranged.

“We are told that several buses have been mobilised to the Russian border which is 50 to 60 km away for evacuation but there is no ground clearance from Ukrainian authorities yet,” Gouri was quoted as saying by TNIE.

The five students also rued being ignored by the central and state governments, which primarily focussed on Kyiv and Kharkiv.

State Resident Commissioner at New Delhi Ravi Kant told the national daily that efforts are on to help the students.

Meanwhile, 2135 more Indians returned on Sunday by 11 special civilian flights from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries. With this, around 16,000 Indians have so far been evacuated by special flights from war-torn Ukraine since February 22.