Emotions run high at Delhi airport as parents welcome children from Ukraine; others await rescue

Emotions ran high at the Delhi airport as the anxious wait of several parents to reunite with their children arriving from Ukraine ended in joy with the landing of the third evacuation flight on Sunday morningOn the other hand scores of parents whose children are still stuck in the violencehit country are having sleepless nights as their children find themselves hiding in bunkers when sirens buzzThe Indira Gandhi International Airport became a witness to a plethora of emotions as parents gave their children a grand welcome with flowers cards and warm hugs upon their arrival here from the Hungarian capital BudapestAir Indias third evacuation flight AI1940 which was scheduled to land here at around 7 am reached a couple of hours late at 920 am At around 245 am Air Indias second evacuation flight from Romanian capital Bucharest brought back 250 Indian nationals to DelhiThe first evacuation flight AI1944 had brought 229 people from Bucharest to Mumbai on Saturday eveningAs the returnees belong to different states several states have established help desks and provided transport services from the Delhi airport to their homesShashank Sharashwat a firstyear medical student thanked the Indian government and the embassy for facilitating his return along with the others Now we are safe The situation in Ukraine is quite tense he saidA majority of the 240 students that landed in the third evacuation flight were studying in the western city of the Uzhhorod which is one of the cities least affected due to the Russian military operationSeveral of the students whom PTI spoke to said that the situation in the western cities of Ukraine was much better than the rest of the country Elated to be back in the country another medical student Abhijeet Kumar too thanked the Indian government for ensuring their returnThere is no violence in the west but we faced a lot of problems People started panicking Prices of groceries shot up and there was panicbuying he saidMeanwhile Rajasthans Women and Child Development Minister Mamta Bhupesh received eight woman students from the state who arrived in Jaipur via Romania We are happy that due to the efforts of the Rajasthan government our girls have been able to come back to their homes despite being in difficult circumstances Bhupesh told reporters hereShe said she will receive some more students coming to Delhi from Ukraine on behalf of the state governmentOne of the students that reached Jaipur said they lived in the safest part of Ukraine but she feared for the wellbeing of her friends who were still stranded thereSameer Khan a student who landed in Delhi too echoed similar sentiments towards the other Indian students in UkraineSeveral students in Ukraine hailing from Haryana and Punjab narrated their ordeal to their parents back home who have been making desperate appeals to the Indian government to speed up evacuation Most of these students are in the eastern part of the warhit countrySenior Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa shared a video on his Twitter handle showing a group of Indian students stranded in Kyiv and are desperately seeking helpnarendramodi ji I have received desperate calls for help from Indian students stranded in Kyiv Ukraine They are in need of food amp to be evacuated from the city immediately There are 174 students who have taken shelter in School No 169 Kyiv right next to Embassy of India Bajwa tweetedMeena Sharma from Sonipat whose daughter is a fourthyear student in Kharkiv told the media that her daughter and many of her friends had neither eaten nor slept well for three daysThey are not getting any help there We are having sleepless nights here Our government should take them to a safer place and bring them back to India safely she saidChandigarhbased Dinesh Dogra whose daughter Simran too is stuck in Kharkiv said she and her friends take shelter in bunkers when sirens buzz outside We pray when there are air raid sirens and shelling Simran told the media over a video callWe are worried about her safety and the wellbeing of other children with her These days we are not able to even sleep Dogra saidA video of two medical students originally from Haryana who are now stranded in Ukraine appealed to the Indian government to evacuate them Their video has gone viral on social media They said they were students of Ternopil National Medical University UkraineIn the video one of the students who identified herself as Mansi Mangla said they reached the UkrainePoland border after a lot of difficulties including walking for over 40 kmWhen we reached the Polish border we saw that the Russians and Polish were being allowed but we were told to go back to the place where we study and nobody was ready to help Mansi saidMeghna Rathore who accompanied Mansi claimed that they spent the night in 5 degrees CelsiusNow neither can we go back nor are we allowed to go to Poland What are we supposed to do she askedThe Indian Embassy in Ukraine had on Saturday tweeted asking the Indian citizens not to move to any of the border posts without prior coordination with the Indian government officialsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever