Indians In Sumy Request Urgent Evacuation As City Under Siege Faces Water, Power Shortage

Indian students in the Ukrainian city of Sumy urged officials to help them evacuate as it sees a rise in hostilities. A student, Ezabel, speaking to CNNNews18 said that more than 600 Indian students remain inside bunkers. She also said that the city’s electricity, heating and water systems have shut down owing to continuous Russian shelling. The student said that the situation in Sumy is dangerous due to continuous fights as well as attacks.

Pictures shared by these students to CNNNews18 showed many Indian students huddled in a bunker at an unknown location in the city.

“Sumy is disconnected from other cities of Ukraine. No possible way to take students out of the city. Sumy is in a very dangerous situation and attacks,” Ezabel said.

The student feared that they would get stuck in the city as bridges were blown up due to bombing and railway services are not operating due to the hostilities. Sumy is close to the Russian border but due to raging hostilities students in Sumy, Indians as well as of other nationalities, are unable to get out of the city.

Another student studying in the Sumy State University who goes by the name Swatil told CNNNews18 that students are aware that buses were arranged but outlined that it is dangerous to travel to reach those buses.

Swatil may have been referring to the reports by Russian news agency TASS which quoted  Russian national defence control centre head colonel general Mikhail Mizintsev as saying that 130 buses have been arranged to safely evacuate Indian and other foreign students from Kharkiv and Sumy.

“We can’t reach the borders and these buses. We don’t have clearance to go from our hostel. It is not safe for us to travel now to these areas. We will be targeted by the military,” Swatil told News18. “We don’t have water now. We can’t stay here for long. We can’t use the toilets. It’s unhygienic now. We can’t cook. For how long we can stay is uncertain,” he further added.

The Russian news agency also said that the buses would then take the evacuees from these cities to Belgorod from where they would be repatriated to their respective nations.

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