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Ukraine
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Ukraine crisis: Indian parents prepared to ‘sell off everything’ to bring kids back home amid fears of invasion by Russia

  • Indian nationals have been urged to leave Ukraine amid uncertainties with Russia massing troops near the border raising fears of an invasion
  • Indians make up the largest percentage of international students in Ukraine, with an estimated 20,000 Indians going to school there

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Servicemen of Ukrainian Military Forces on the front-line with Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk. Photo/AFP
Neeta Lal

When Indian national Isha Sahni, 20, who is studying medicine at the Bukovinian State Medical University in the Ukranian city of Chernivtsi, arrived back in India’s capital of New Delhi, her parents heaved a huge sigh of relief.

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Deepak Sahni, a manager in a government department, said he and his wife Bharti were petrified as they followed the brewing crisis in Ukraine, with Russia massing troops near the border raising fears of an invasion.

“We were prepared to sell off everything if need be to bring her back. We struggled for days to get a ticket for her and her three Indian friends. But as no flights were available through the normal route, we tapped an agent in the UK to book tickets from [the capital] Kyiv.”

Isha Sahni at her university in Ukraine. Photo: Handout
Isha Sahni at her university in Ukraine. Photo: Handout

Isha says the journey back home was worse than a nightmare. To return to Delhi, she first took a 10-hour ride on a rickety bus from Chernivtsi to Kyiv.

“But all flights kept getting cancelled so we were stranded at the airport for hours,” she recounted, adding that at some point they were told they could fly back to India via Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates but needed to procure a transit visa first. The four youngsters eventually got on a direct flight to India.

On Sunday, India’s embassy in Kyiv issued a statement urging all Indian nationals, including those studying in Ukraine, to leave temporarily amid uncertainties. It added that Indian embassy officials and their families were also being evacuated from Kyiv.

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Air India, several days earlier, confirmed it would increase commercial flights between Kyiv and New Delhi, and offer three flights on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday but the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi said this was not an “evacuation” plan.

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