With no water, medicine, condition of Indian students in Ukraine worsens

The ripple effect of Russiarsquos allout invasion of Ukraine has begun to hit the health of Indian students stuck in the warhit country who donrsquot have access to drinking water or medicines The Indian medical students stranded in Sumy Kharkiv and Kyiv told midday that no facility is being provided by the embassies and they are reeling under constant fear of losing their livesMost of the students are hiding in bunkers where the mobile network is poor Assam resident Mahrukh Nigar who is stuck in a hostel of a medical college in Sumy told midday that most of the girl students are running short of sanitary pads and calcium tabletsThere are hundreds of Indian students stranded in Ukraine with no food and water at their medical college hostels Indianstudent Mohammad Faisal who is stuck in Sumy at a hostel shares his ordealVideo credits DiwakarSharmaa MiddayNews IndianInUkraine UkraineRussiaWar pictwittercompfqaDLCajamdash Mid Day mid_day March 2 2022ldquoI regularly take calcium tablets But today I donrsquot have a single tablet of calcium My knees are paining Also my haemoglobin level is between 9 and 10 I am feeling so weak day by dayrdquo said Nigar who hails from Guwahati districtldquoAbove all most of us are running short of sanitary pads but we canrsquot think of moving out to buy from nearby stores as armed men are seen walking around our hostel and the surrounding areas are heavily bombedrdquo she saidMohammed Faisal from Bihar said they are left with a handful of soda bottlesNigar said that the girls have pulled out pieces from old bedsheets to use them as sanitary pads ldquoWe know it is unhygienic but we are helpless And every girl is having a different menstrual flowhellipso their clothes get stained and it is very embarrassing But we canrsquot help itrdquo Nigar addedThere are hundreds of Indian students stuck with no food and water at their medical college hostels ldquoDuring peaceful days we used to buy a jar of drinking water But now there is no drinking water at the hostel We cannot afford to drink the tap as it could cause typhoidrdquo said Mohammad Faisal who is a native of Bihar and is stuck among hundreds of students at a hostel in SumyldquoWe are forced to take soda water to quench our thirst But it gives us a burning sensation while passing urine I know it is not healthy to use soda water but there is no optionhellipour priority is to keep ourselves safe and sound so that we can reach our country safelyrdquo Faisal told middayldquoThere are a few students who have already started to drink tap water they are coughing and it could be a health alarmrdquo he saidFaisal added that most of the time they are starving His friend Mehak Shaikh said ldquoWe all are scared after the death of an Indian student in the gun battle We have learnt that the Russian forces are humiliating people who are crossing the border They are playing a Hunter Game with the nonUkrainians who are eager to leave the countryrdquoTaxi drivers looting studentsMehak said taxi drivers are taking advantage of the situation ldquoThe taxi drivers are stopping the vehicle midway and looting people and leaving them stranded on the roadrdquo Mehak said ldquoIt is the reason we have decided to stay here inside the bunkerrdquoMehak added ldquoI peeped through the window and saw many armed men around I canrsquot think of stepping outrdquo Faisal and his friends are terrified to see their physics teacher pick up arms to fight against Russian forcesldquoMaxym Kolesnyk would teach us physics in college But after the government asked citizens to pick up weapons to fight against Russian forces he joined the Ukrainian force I was shocked to see him with a deadly weaponrdquo Faisal told middayHe added ldquoHere people who ride bicycles are considered among the lowest strata of society But a few days ago I saw a rag picker holding two AK47s and he was riding a bicyclehellip can you imaginerdquoWhen asked if any nonUkrainian including any Indian student has also picked up a gun to safeguard themselves another student Utkarsh Singh said ldquoA foreign national will have to surrender hisher passport to pick up a deadly weapon to fight the Russian forces I have heard that they will also be given Ukrainian citizenship for showing this demeanourrdquoMaxym Kolesnyk a physics professor who has picked up a gun to fight the RussiansSingh was stuck in Ternopil from where he reached Romania recently ldquoThe Ukrainian forces used pepper spray at the border to disperse the mob They also trained a gun at us as people desperately wanted to cross the borderrdquo said Singh who added that he had to wait for 30 hours to cross the border and reach RomanialdquoAll the roads in Ukraine are heavily bombed The Government of India must airlift all the fellow citizens from the restive zone of Ukrainerdquo Singh addedFamilies suffering tooMany students who do not wish to be named told midday that their parents and close relatives are in huge tension ldquoOur parents are in tension and if we come on record to narrate our ordeal my parents will be in huge shockrdquo said a female student a Kalbadevi resident ldquoMy friendrsquos mother had to be hospitalised after she learnt that our lives are in danger My mom is also very unwellrdquo said another medical student who is the only son of his parentsMany students told midday that most of their time is spent inside a bunker where there is no washroom ldquoWe have to hold the pressure but there is no way out to move to the washroom as one bombshell could be devastatingrdquo said Faisal His friend Mehak said ldquoAll the huge pipelines are there in the bunker And god forbid if one bomb is thrown at the pipeline the high water pressure would kill us The bunkers are messy We canrsquot even breathe properly So whenever we get time we go upstairs Come what may happensrdquolsquoFunny bonesrsquo is angry manAfter the physics professor who his students dubbed him as lsquofunny bonesrsquo shared his guntoting photograph on Facebook hundreds of people lauded his effort and commented lsquoGod take care everything will be finersquo lsquoThank you for your courage Feeling proud God bless yoursquo lsquoGlory to Ukraine save you Godrsquo lsquoSumy Guerrilla Republicrsquo lsquoThank yoursquo lsquoMay the lord protectrsquo lsquoGodfather we are with you Thank you for protecting usrsquo lsquoThank you Maxim Keep safe out there guys Remember that they are waiting for you at homersquo lsquoBe careful We are praying for all of yoursquo lsquoVictory Take care of yourselfrsquo lsquoA low bowrsquo lsquoMax we are proud Thoughts are with you Make it back alive And with the victoryrsquo