The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has escalated again, prompting India to issue two consecutive opinions urging its citizens to leave Ukraine immediately. This has added to uncertainty among Indian students returning to war-torn Ukraine to resume their classes. Despite this new tension, students, who are mainly taking medical courses, have chosen to remain in Ukraine for the time being, with many of them claiming they have no other choice.
Many students say they wait and watch before deciding what to do next. Meanwhile, some of the students are temporarily moving to Hungary and Slovakia, as these countries have issued 30-day permits at the border. Others are slowly getting used to the daily sirens and underground bunkers, the Indian Express reported.
Read also| Beyond Ukraine, Cheap Study Abroad Destinations for Medical Aspirants
“Hardly any student now thinks of returning to India. After everything we’ve been through in the past seven months, we just want to get our degrees in Ukraine. We only came back a month ago after convincing our parents and spending at least a lakh, we can’t go back now,” a fifth-year student at Lviv National Medical University told the national daily newspaper.
India issued its second advisory in a week on Tuesday, advising its citizens to “leave Ukraine by all means available”. Earlier on October 19, MEA advised students not to travel to Ukraine and advised those who had returned to the country to leave due to the “deteriorating security situation”.
More than 20,000 Indian students returned home earlier this year due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. Since September, an estimated 1,000 students have returned to Ukraine to continue their education.
The latest advisories come amid increased hostilities against the relatively safer western Ukrainian cities of Lviv and Ternopil. Russia has claimed that Ukraine planned to use a “dirty bomb” laced with nuclear material. Western countries, however, have dismissed Russia’s allegation as a pretext to escalate the eight-month-long conflict.
Read all Latest education news here