'Indians not allowed': Students face racist attacks in Ukraine, decry govt's 'lack of efforts'

The stranded Indian students attempting to leave Ukraine are seeing the worst of times with many facing racist attacks at the hands of the Ukrainian officials and security forces. One of the students while slamming the lack of efforts on part of the Indian government, said: "Will they airlift our dead bodies after it's too late? We doubt if they will even come here to get our dead bodies."

New Delhi: As the Russian attack on Ukraine completed seven days on Wednesday, the stranded Indian students attempting to leave the country are seeing the worst of times with many facing racist attacks at the hands of the Ukrainian officials and security forces.

The students on Wednesday were in dire straits after the Indian embassy asked them to leave Kharkiv immediately and reach Pesochin, Babaye and Bezlyudovka areas on the outskirts of Ukraine by 6 pm (Ukrainian time). However, a group of Indian students stranded at the borders of Kharkiv shared a video saying that the Indians were being asked to "back off" and not being allowed to enter the trains as they tried to evacuate. They also questioned the Indian government and accused it of not doing enough for the students stuck there.

Anurag Panwar, one of the students who is originally from Uttarakhand, shared the video in which he and some other Indian students narrate how they were not allowed to board the trains even after traveling a distance of 15-20 km to the Kharkiv Railway Station. "What is the Indian government doing? Does it even want to help us? All they are doing is countering the situation. The advisories are flooding in. The most recent one asked us to leave Kharkiv by 6 pm. How are we supposed to leave the place in three hours? Why are they not facilitating commutation for us here?" an enraged student can be heard asking in the video.

The students said Indians were not allowed to enter the trains. "Two trains have left right in front of us but they are not letting us in. They are closing the doors and telling us right on our faces to back off. 'Indians are not allowed' they say. We are facing serious racism here. We just want to know what the Indian government is doing about it," says one of the students in the video.

Another student describes how the situation is worsening every day with no food, extreme weather, and no certainty of safety whatsoever. "They (Indian Govt) had said they'll airlift us if it comes to that. Will they airlift our dead bodies after it's too late? We doubt if they will even come here to get our dead bodies," the student said, registering his strong disappointment in the absence of efforts by the Indian government.

Similar reports of Indian students facing harassment in Ukraine had come earlier this week as well. Several stranded students alleged harassment at the Romanian and Poland borders and said that many of the girl students were assaulted by the Ukrainian soldiers.

As per the information available so far, around 247 students from Uttarakhand were trapped in Ukraine, out of which only 37 students have been able to return to their homes. The Government of India has started Operation Ganga to rescue the students trapped in the war zone. The Ministry of External Affairs Wednesday said that around 17,000 Indians had left Ukrainian borders so far, though it did not say how many more were still stranded in the war-torn country.