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INDIAN and African students studying in Ukraine have appealed for help to get them out of the country and home to safety.
As Russia launched its military attack on Ukraine on Thursday 24 February and the government closed its airspace to civilian flights and imposed martial law, African student unions raised fears over the safety of thousands of African students studying in Ukraine’s higher education institutions.
Students from India earlier appealed to their government for help to leave the crisis-hit country as tensions over a possible Russian invasion mounted, but no official plans for an evacuation materialised.
About 18,000 Indian students – making up a quarter of some 76,500 foreign students from 155 countries, according to Ukraine Ministry of Education statistics – are presently stuck in Ukraine, worried about their safety.
Three African countries made up nearly 20% of all foreign students in Ukraine as of 2020, according to Ukraine’s ministry of education and science. Morocco, Nigeria and Egypt are in the top 10 list for countries whose students are studying in Ukraine, accounting for 8,000, 4,000 and 3,500 students respectively.
On what Western leaders said was a “dark day” for Europe, Kamal Ashear, Moroccan student atDnipro State Medical University in Ukraine told University World News in a recorded message via WhatsApp: “Moroccan students are now in shelters in a dilemma, panic and great fear. We do not know how to return to our country … No airports. No trains, no cars, no taxis. The cities are closed, the streets are empty, and the movement is paralysed.”
Also a hashtag dubbed ‘Egyptian students in Ukraine’ said: “Please raise our voice, we are in terror. We want to return safely to our country. We do not know what to do.”
On Thursday, after Russia declared war on Ukraine, students in Kharkiv reported explosions in the city. In Ivano-Frankivsk, where many Indian students are studying, there were reports of the airport being bombed, confirmed by the Ukraine interior ministry, and shelling elsewhere in the city.
Study in Ukraine, the official Ukrainian government source of information for international students, issued a 24 February statement saying: “Tonight, Russia attacked Ukraine. Martial law has been declared in Ukraine. Follow the news and stay in touch with your university! Remember, safety is the priority now!”
In response, several African embassies in Ukraine including Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and Ghana issued statements to guide their communities including students.
The Egyptian embassy in Kiev issued a 24 February statement calling upon Egyptian citizens there “not to leave their homes, to keep identification documents, and to follow the instructions issued by the Ukrainian authorities until the situation stabilises”.
The Nigerian embassy urged Nigeria nationals resident in Ukraine, including students, to “remain calm but be very vigilant and be responsible for their personal security and safety”.
Ghana’s foreign ministry urged Ghanaian students in Ukraine to seek shelter in their homes or in designated government places of shelter. More than 1,000 Ghanaian nationals are currently studying or working in Ukraine, the ministry said, adding that it is “gravely concerned” for their safety.
Peter Kwasi Kodjie, secretary general of the All-Africa Students Union (AASU), told University World News: “AASU is deeply concerned by the Russian Federation’s military attacks against the Republic of Ukraine and is gravely disturbed about the security and safety of several thousand African students caught in the conflict.”
AASU urged the United Nations, African diplomatic missions and other relevant humanitarian missions to provide unrestrained shelter and security for them.
Serhiy Kvit, head of the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance of Ukraine, confirmed to University World News on 24 February that all university activities were suspended due to the Russian military action.
In the days leading up to the invasion, Indian students reported a tense atmosphere and India last week announced a ban on all flights between India and Ukraine, even though Ukraine had kept its airspace open.
India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation this week lifted that ban under an ‘air bubble’ arrangement with Ukraine, and discussions were underway between the ministries of external affairs and civil aviation and several airlines about increasing the number of flights to bring back Indian citizens, but the cost of those flights was a concern for students.
However, in the early hours of Thursday Russian forces began attacking targets all over Ukraine and by Friday Russian forces were moving into the country from across the border in the north, east and south.
Indians, students advised to leave
An advisory by the Indian embassy on 20 February announced that in view of “continued high levels of tensions and uncertainties with respect to Ukraine, all Indian nationals whose stay is not deemed essential and all Indian students are advised to leave Ukraine temporarily. Available commercial flights and charter flights may be availed for travel, for orderly and timely departure.”
Some students subsequently received an embassy advisory specifically targeting students, advising them that it would be “in the interest of their safety to leave Ukraine temporarily, rather than wait for official confirmation from universities”.
Three quarters of the Indian students currently stranded in Ukraine are studying various courses in medical colleges. The country is a popular destination for Indian students pursuing medical, dental and nursing courses as fees in Ukraine are a quarter of the fees of private medical colleges in India.
Some students who had already managed to return to India from Ukraine prior to Russia’s full-scale attack said that border cities were being evacuated by the Ukrainian government as tensions mounted. Most of those students were able to return aboard Air Arabia flights via Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Others left on Turkish Airlines flights via Istanbul, and then to Delhi via Qatar Airways. But they constitute a minority as thousands of their classmates remain stranded in Ukraine, they said.
A special Air India flight was sent to Ukraine on 22 February. Although not billed as an evacuation, over 250 Indians, including students, returned from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city in its northeastern region, just 25 kilometres from the Russian border. The embassy of India in Ukraine said at the time that four flights would operate on 25 February, 27 February and 6 March from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to Delhi.
Kharkiv has two institutions popular with international students: VN Karazin Kharkiv National University with some 4,277 international students; and Kharkiv National Medical University with 4,215 students from overseas, according to 2020 figures.
Soaring airfares
Vivek Sharma (22) from Karnal in India’s northern state of Haryana is currently in his first year at Lviv University of Business and Law in western Ukraine studying business management, having only arrived in Ukraine three months ago.
“I want to leave Ukraine by any means,” he told University World News in the build-up before the invasion. “But at this time the air tickets from Ukraine to India cost more than INR70,000 (about US$930). It was only INR30,000 in normal times. I don’t have that much money. Even our family members have not been told the real situation or else they will be anxious.”
Sharma and other students in Ukraine are from middle-class families and came to the country to study for a better future but many had used up family savings or have taken out loans to be able to study in Ukraine and could not afford an emergency air ticket out. Sharma said he would be spending around INR600,000 (US$8,000) for the full four-year course. He said students like himself have only UAH4,000-5,000 (US$135-170) left.
Pawan Meshram (22) from Nagpur in India’s western Maharashtra state is enrolled in an undergraduate MBBS medical programme at Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University in Ivano city, northwestern Ukraine. Currently in his second year of study, he wanted to leave Ukraine before the invasion, but soaring airfares made it impossible.
“The embassy has announced flights for returning to India, but the tickets are so expensive that we cannot afford them,” Meshram told University World News before the invasion, adding that he wanted the Indian government to evacuate its citizens at the earliest.
Some universities were not allowing foreign students a leave of absence despite mounting tensions in the country. Speaking before universities closed down due to the invasion, Meshram said if a single class was skipped the university imposed a fine equivalent to INR550. In this way, INR2,200 (about US$30) could be levied for skipping four classes in a single day, which made it difficult for students to leave Ukraine.
Campaign for students stuck in Ukraine
Indian families of students in Ukraine had urged the government to bring Indian students back home as soon as possible.
Charmesh Sharma, a student and Congress Party worker in Bundi in India’s northern desert state of Rajasthan, who assists Indians in distress abroad, had been campaigning for the students. He was in touch with the Indian foreign ministry as well as the Indian embassy in Ukraine and had written a letter to the president of India demanding assistance for them.
He told University World News: “It is the responsibility of the government to bring these children from Ukraine safely. They are scared. Their lives are in danger. Their families in India are having sleepless nights.”
Before the invasion began, the embassy said the mission was continuing to function normally to provide all services to Indian nationals and it had asked Indian nationals to keep it posted about their status in Ukraine, to enable the mission to reach out to them when needed and facilitate their evacuation in case a conflict flared up between Russia and Ukraine.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs had established a control room and issued contact and helpline numbers for its nationals trapped in Ukraine.
– University World News