Indore. An Indian student, who arrived home after escaping war-torn Ukraine after a Russian attack, narrated her ordeal on Wednesday that Ukrainian soldiers mentally harassed several medical students like her by behaving strangely before being allowed to enter Poland. According to the student, these students, who were trying to save their lives and return to India, were asked by Ukrainian soldiers to laugh and clap sometimes while using them “like puppets”.
This student is studying MBBS at Ternopil National Medical University, Ukraine. He told reporters at the Devi Ahilyabai Holkar airport in Indore, “We 50-60 medical students arranged a hired bus on February 26 to reach the outskirts of Poland from Ternopil city. But due to heavy traffic jam and chaos on the way, we were de-boarded 45 kms from this border.”
The student said that the medical students, battling the freezing cold, reached the Poland border on foot, but Ukrainian soldiers stationed there did not immediately allow them to cross the border post. The student recalled, “Ukrainian soldiers were asking us to stand and sometimes sit, using them as puppets. He also asked us to clap and laugh.”
read also
However, he said that later, giving preference to girl students, medical students were allowed to enter the border of Poland, after which they returned home under “Operation Ganga” of the Government of India. Another medical student, who returned to India from Ukraine via Poland, said, “In view of the possibility of war, the Indian government had issued an advisory asking us to return home. But then important studies were going on in our university in Ukraine and we could not come to India without the permission of the university.”
Officials said that six medical students studying in Ukraine, including both the girl students, reached Indore after returning home. He said that these students are residents of Indore, Ujjain and Jhabua districts. Eyewitnesses said that some of these students got emotional as soon as they left the Indore airport. Indore MP Shankar Lalwani and Ujjain MP Anil Firojia welcomed these students by presenting bouquets amidst slogans of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Vande Mataram”. (agency)