Students who were safely moved to Hungary on Thursday told mid-day it wasn’t the Indian Embassy or the government that planned their evacuation from Kharkiv, but it was their education agents. Professors, whose agencies helped youngsters from India secure admission in Ukraine, have arranged buses to get 500 students across the border to Hungary. They have vowed to return home only when every single student is out of the war zone.

The Mumbai-based students told mid-day over the phone that these agents are now god for them. They are risking their lives by going out in the war zone, amid bombing and firing, and bringing food for them, said students who arrived in Hungary on Thursday evening. They started early Wednesday and travelling about 2,000 km, they crossed over to Hungary. Sion resident Neha Dingankar, a third year MBBS student at Kharkiv National Medical University, told mid-day they were alive only because of these agents.