Worried parents wait anxiously for safe return of children from Ukraine

With much uncertainty and anxiety in the lives of some people of Tamil Nadu, especially the students for advanced studies in Ukraine, which is struck by the ongoing war waged by Russia, a few parents in parts of Madurai are in a state of panic and worried over the safe return of their sons and daughters.

S Gopalakrishnan, a resident of Oomachikulam, Madurai, said his daughter Shivahni, a third-year MBBS student at VN Karazin Kharkiv National Medical University in eastern Ukraine, is encountering trouble meeting her basic needs.

As war intensified, food grew scarce at Kharkiv, where his daughter is enduring difficulties along with others in the basement of a metro rail building. But, fighting for survival, somehow his daughter is managing food as it is scarcely offered by a few Indian hoteliers, Gopalakrishnan, who’s working in a travel agency in Madurai, said by quoting his daughter’s words through phone calls at 11.30 am and at 5 pm on Saturday.

Phone calls could only be received from the other end of the war zone and much to agony, the civilians have been asked to switch off their mobile phones at 7 pm, citing safety concerns.

Since the Russian border is just 12 kilometers away from Kharkiv, is in danger of being bombarded any moment.

Two more students from Villapuram and South Gate in Madurai are also in need of help as their parents sought the authorities to reach the embassy to bring them home soon. They are students of Civil Aviation Institute in Kharkiv. Their parents through phone calls confirmed their current stay is in the hostel among 150 Indians.

Meanwhile, the parents of a medical college student who is unable to return to India from Ukraine requested the State and Central government to take steps to bring their son home. Arul of Poonjai village in Kancheepuram is studying MBBS in Ukraine and was in the fifth year. Arul had gone to Ukraine four months ago after the classes resumed for the fifth year students. On Friday Arul contacted his parents over the video call and said that he is close to the place where the war is happening and unable to travel to India.