Telangana student shares his harrowing experience in Ukraine

Hyderabad: From waking up to the thundering boom of explosions, walking through ravaged streets to having a gun pointed at him, Polla Vishnu Vardhan Rao had a long and arduous odyssey as he found his way through a war-torn Ukraine to reach the safety of his home in Telangana. A third-year medical student of Vinnytsia […]

Hyderabad: From waking up to the thundering boom of explosions, walking through ravaged streets to having a gun pointed at him, Polla Vishnu Vardhan Rao had a long and arduous odyssey as he found his way through a war-torn Ukraine to reach the safety of his home in Telangana.

A third-year medical student of Vinnytsia National Pirogov Medical University, Ukraine, Vishnu, 22, and his friends encountered harrowing experiences as they struggled to escape amid bombing by the Russian forces.

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When the first bombing took place on February 22, his university continued online classes.

“We panicked on learning about the bombing and were told to seek shelter in a bunker on hearing sirens. The next day, a huge blast took place about 50 km away from our university, even as we were attending online classes,” the youngster, a native of Siddipet, recalls.

Vishnu and his friends hired a bus and reached the Ukrainian border with Romania but by then, others had flocked the border crossing in large numbers. Suffering from pelvic bone issues, he had to wait for almost 36 hours in bone chilling temperatures.

“I cannot stand for a long time. I even contemplated returning to the university but then decided to endure the pain and cross the border. Small rations that we carried helped us survive,” he says.

It was at the border that Vishnu and his friend ended up staring down a gun barrel pointed at them.

The border post has two gates – one each for foreigners and Ukrainian nationals.

“Keeping the gate for foreigners closed, they allowed only Ukrainians to cross the border. When our turn to cross the border came, we were shoved aside. This happened thrice and the fourth time when we raised our voice, the Ukrainian army personnel pointed his gun at us,” Vishnu recalls.

Entering Romania with the assistance of Indian Embassy officials did not end the ordeal. They reached Bucharest only to be told that girl students were being prioritized to fly back to New Delhi.

“We explained our four-day plight to the Indian Embassy officials. After much pleading, we were allowed onboard the special flight for girls,” said Vishnu, who reached Hyderabad on February 28.

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