Prachiti Dinesh Pawar, a 19-year-old Panvel resident and an MBBS student of Ivano Frankivsk National Medical College in Ukraine returned home safely from the war-ravaged country on Monday. She is recovering from the ordeal she faced throughout her journey. She says that many of her friends are still stranded at different borders of Ukraine.
Four medical students, including Pawar from the Raigad district returned home. The panic-stricken students said that they heaved a sigh of relief after they first landed in Delhi from Romania.
Pawar, a second-year student was sleeping when the country was invaded by Russian force. Since she was in the western side of the country, there was a little impact of war initially. However, the college management raised alarm that they all could be in trouble very soon. She was sleeping when her sister called from India about the war on February 24 morning.
She says that they did not receive any major support from the Indian embassy in evacuation from Ukraine initially. Though they had already booked tickets of March 2 at Rs 43,000 each ticket, they had to leave early after the war started. “Since the tension was brewing, we had booked ticket of March 2. However, the war started and we had to leave earlier,” said Pawar.
Prachiti is with her mother |
They reached near the Romnia border at their own expenses. “Around 10 km away from the Romania border, the bus left all the passengers in the midnight,” recalls Pawar. She added that they walked around 10 km to reach Romania border and there was continuous snow fall with temperature less than 0 degree.
When they reached at the Romania border, they were not allowed to enter. “We tried to contact the Indian Embassy, but there was no response,” said Pawar. She added that they asked his friends and relatives to tweet and sought help. This worked, and the Indian Embassy acted and they were allowed to enter Romania. However, after entering Romania, they received all help, foods and facility. After spending a day in Romania, they boarded the flight for Delhi.
The Raigad district information official informed that a total of 32 relatives of students approached after they had issued a helpline number in February after Russia attacked Ukraine. Till March 2, a total of four students reached their homes safely. As present, at least eight students from Kharghar and Panvel areas are still stranded in Ukraine and adjoining countries' borders.
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