'YES WE EXIST': Indian Students Stuck In Ukraine's Sumy Call For Immediate Evacuation

These students have now taken to social media and are regularly posting updates, urging government to evacuate them before the situation worsens and they are "reduced to bodies".

(Getty Image)

New Delhi: Hundred of Indian students stranded in Ukraine's border town Sumy have urged the Indian government to rescue them and bring them back home immediately as shells rain down from above and armed men roam the streets.

These students have now taken to social media and are regularly posting updates, urging government to evacuate them at the earliest possible before the situation worsens and they are "reduced to bodies".

Radhika Sangwan, a medical student stranded in Sumy, claimed that there are around 700-800 students in the city. She also said that there was no confirmed news on their evacuation.

"I am a student in Sumy, Ukraine. YES WE EXIST!!! There are 700-800 students in Sumy. It's the 7th day of attack and there is no confirmed news on our evacuation. Stress, fear and anxiety are getting to us. Hope is lost. Please help," Sangwan tweeted on Thursday.

Another student named Mahek Shaikh took to Twitter and shared an eight-second video clip of what appeared to be a blast in the town.

"Complete city blackout, no electricity and water supply and multiple bomb blasts nearby. Slow network," she wrote in the post.

Another video shared by Shaikh showed several armed men were seen roaming outside their hostel.

"Looking out of our room's window, another sighting of armed men going around our hostel is what we notice. It's unsafe to step out and the Indian Embassy wants us to catch trains and cross cities. Please evacuate us before the situation worsens," she wrote.

The students started tweeting in panic after the Indian Embassy, earlier this week, said that intense fighting was underway in Kharkiv, Sumy and Kyiv, and urged Indian citizens not to venture towards railway stations in these cities wherever curfew has been applied to until curbs are lifted and considerable civilian movement is renewed.

Currently, all trains and buses have stopped plying in Sumy, roads and bridges out of the city are destroyed and fighting is underway on the streets of the city.

Three visibly-distressed medical students, who were holed up in a bunker, shared a video on social media urging for immediate evacuation. In the video, they said that they were running out of food and the security situation is worsening.

"There is no electricity. We are running out of water. There was a huge explosion that is why we ran into the bunker. Please evacuate us," one of them said.

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Amid all this, the Indian government had said that it will evacuate over 7,400 Indian nationals under 'Operation Ganga' in the next two days. Currently, Centre has initiated an airlift operation to evacuate Indians, who have found their way to the neighbouring countries of war-torn Ukraine. 

Today, around 3,500 Indians are expected to arrive from Ukraine, while over 3,900 will be ferried back on Saturday.

According to the latest statement by Civil Aviation Ministry, as many as 17 flights are expected to land in India - 15 in New Delhi and 2 in Mumbai - today.

So far, the Centre has brought back over 6,200 citizens, including the 2,185 coming on Thursday alone through 10 special civilian flights, since the evacuation process began on February 22.

(With inputs from PTI.)