From deadly bombing to discrimination at borders, Indian students recount their nightmares in Ukraine

India’s much-hyped Operation Ganga put on scores of flights to get the country’s students home from Ukraine — but until they could actually get out of the warzone, many had to fend for themselves. Stuti Mishra reports

Indian and Nepalese students who had been studying at Poltava University of Economics and Trade in Ukraine prepare food around a campfire after arriving at the border (Getty Images)

When 21-year-old Syed Abdul Rehan left India to pursue his medical degree in Ukraine’s Lviv, he never imagined his return journey would involve the threat of deadly shelling, hiding for days in bomb shelters or having to walk for many miles without food.

But on the night of 24 February when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, Rehan and his friends were woken up by a call from a friend in Kharkiv at 5am who could hear the sound of shelling and was in a state of panic.

Rehan tells The Independent his friend kept asking: “What should I do, what should I do.” Rehan did not know the answer, and even though Lviv is a lot further west than Kharkiv he and his friends also had a big decision to make as their city also became a target for missile strikes.