Students in Sumi boarded their buses at the time of the ceasefire

He packed his bags, boarded the buses and the engines were started and was the first of about 700 students to survive the 12-day war between Russia and Ukraine. sumi were about to go home. But after that the buses stopped.

Russia announced a ceasefire on Monday morning for the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy to allow the evacuation of civilians.

The students of Sumy State University are believed to be the last group of Indians trying to flee Ukraine, but they are trapped in the city which has been under attack since the beginning because it lies on the border with Russia.

They were to start moving towards the nearest railway station in Poltava City in buses arranged for them. The previous day, the Indian Embassy deployed its team to Poltava to oversee the evacuation.

“I was in one of the buses, which was standing behind the other buses and getting ready to leave and then suddenly we stopped moving,” says Zara Azaan. “We were told there was a ceasefire violation somewhere on our route to Poltava,” she says.

“We then waited for about an hour in our buses before deciding to send us back to our hostels,” says Zara.

Four buses had arrived at the university and it was decided that priority would be given to female students and that each bus would have only a few male students to follow them. Buses were to run with the first batch of students, drop them at the train station and return for the next lot. The students had boarded two of these buses when the evacuation plan failed.

“We waited for the buses for three hours. It was a cold day and we were standing in the snow. Buses were running late as there was checking on the way and the weather was bad,” says Zara.

“Hope we are all left with it. What other option do we have,” said a disheartened Hitesh Kumar Gurjar. Asked if there are any plans for Tuesday, he said, “As of now we have no instructions. No. We’re just waiting.”

Till late Sunday night, there was a lot of confusion about whether the students would be able to leave the next day or not. The day was a quiet one, seeing a break in fighting for the first time since the start of the war.

“We were told that we should prepare to stay here another week and use the opportunity gained by the silence of the guns to stock up on food. We went to the stores and bought everything we could We were being run out of rations. Then at 1.30 we were told to pack our bags and be ready to leave the next morning. But shortly after we were told that there had been no agreement on a ceasefire and that we had our plans for Monday. The evacuation has been cancelled,” said Zara.

Then on Monday at around nine in the morning, instructions came to queue for the buses running on the way.

“We packed everything and decided to give whatever food we had bought to the staff here who helped us. Now we have been given some food by Kusum Pharmacy, but it is not much,” said Zara. Kusum Pharmacy is an Indian-owned business helping with local arrangements for students in Sumi.