Stranded students in Ukraine express gratitude to Govt of India, Indian embassy in Romania for efforts in evacuation
Mar 02, 2022
Bucharest [Romania], March 2 : Students of Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University in Mykolaiv, Ukraine expressed gratitude for the efforts put in by the Indian Embassy in Romania and the Government of India for their safe evacuation.
They thanked the embassy and Government of India for providing them with bus from Moldova to Romania and helping them reach safely with full facilities.
"Thankful for providing a bus for us from Moldova to Romania and thanking Indian Embassy and Indian government for providing us with full facilities and we reached safely very thankful," said one of the students.
"Very thankful for the embassy for arranging these facilities for us," said another one echoing the same sentiment of gratitude for the efforts put in by the Embassy and the Government of India.
Several other Indian students who arrived in the city of Bucharest in Romania from Ukraine said that the national tricolour helped them as well as some Pakistani and Turkish students in safely crossing the various checkpoints in the war-torn country.
"We were told in Ukraine that being Indians and carrying Indian flag, we won't have any problems," said a medical student who arrived from Odesa in Southern Ukraine.
The students narrated how they bought spray paints from the markets to prepare Indian flags.
"I ran to the market, bought some colour sprays and a curtain. I then cut the curtain and spray-painted it to make the Indian tricolour," said a student.
They added that even some Pakistani and Turkish students passed checkpoints using the Indian flag.
"The Turkish and Pakistani students were also using the Indian flag," a student said, adding that the Indian flag was of great help to the Pakistani, Turkish students.
The students from Odessa moved from Molodova to Romania.
"We booked the bus from Odesa and came to the Molodova border. The Moldovan citizens were very nice. They provided us with free accommodation and taxis and buses to get to Romania," a student said. Further adding that they did not face much problem in Molodova as the Indian embassy had already made the arrangements.
The students also expressed their gratitude to the Indian embassy officials who arranged for their food and shelter as they awaited their flights back to India.
"When a student is arriving here, he's first taken to a proper shelter and provided with food while the registration takes place while dates on which they will be evacuated are finalised," the student said.
Earlier on Monday, the Indian government deputed four Union Cabinet ministers to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine to coordinate the evacuation efforts following a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.