Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Feb 24 : As Russia announced military operation in Ukraine, Kashmiri students stranded in the country and their families in Kashmir are pleading with the government to bring their wards back home safely.
Kashmiri students stranded in Ukraine while talking with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that there is uncertainty everywhere in the country since Russia started attacking and nobody knows what is going to happen.
“Since last few days there have been rumors that Russia will attack Ukraine. We were wishing to leave the country but as our exams were about to start, we couldn’t leave and were stuck here,” said a student from the Kharkiv area of the country, who lives in Srinagar.
He said that they have heard the sound of some shells but the area they are living in is safe as of now and everything is going on normally, “but what is going to happen nobody knows.”
He said that there are around seven Kashmiri students in the area who all are pursuing MBBS and authorities must make arrangements to bring them back.
“Everyone is in panic here and people have started leaving the capital and moving to other places in the country. With the closure of airspace, nobody is able to leave the country,” said another student from Kashmir stuck in the capital, Kyiv.
He said that they are trying to hire a charter to fly home and are in contact with the embassy to facilitate their return home.
The families of the stranded students have also requested authorities to take immediate steps to ensure safe passage of their wards in Ukraine.
Ukraine is a country located in the eastern Europe. It is the second largest on the continent after Russia.
Ukraine is bordered by Belarus to the north, Russia to the east, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea to the south, Moldova and Romania to the southwest, and Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland to the west. In the far southeast, Ukraine is separated from Russia by the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
Russia has long resisted Ukraine’s move towards European institutions, both NATO and the EU—(KNO)
