TAMIL STUDENTS WHO WERE STRANDED IN UKRAINE RETURN TO CHENNAI, SAYS, "HAD MELTED SNOW TO QUENCH THIRST"

Tamil Nadu students who arrived in Chennai from Ukraine shared their travel experience. Many were shocked to learn that they had kept the food for three meals a day.

Stranded students

Indian students studying medicine in Ukraine have been affected by hte current tensions that is going on between Russia and Ukraine. To rescue them, the Indian government launched a rescue operation called 'Operation Ganga'. According to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, 14000 Indian students have been rescued.

There were 1,921 Tamil Nadu students studying in Ukraine. They have returned home through the rescue operations. The 9 students who were finally rescued in the operation arrived in Chennai the day before yesterday.

Maybe a meal

Monisha, one of the students who met reporters at the airport, shared her experience. She said, "I am studying medicine in Sumy, Ukraine. Russia declared war on Ukraine on February 24. We have been locked in university bunkers since then. The first 3 days were not a problem, but after that the electricity and drinking water were cut off. Friends would go out and buy food, including bread." We ate three meals a day, melted the ice and drank water. We would go into the bunkers whenever we would hear shelling sounds."

Commenting on the trip, Monisha said, "Then we left for Poland on March 8. The monotonous experiments took us a day to cover the distance we had to cover in an hour. The women could not cope up with the natural calamities.

Fear

Speaking on his return trip from Ukraine to India, Prabhakaran, a student from Arakkonam, said, "At one point there was a fear that we would not be able to return to our homeland. .There is peace only after setting foot on Tamil soil. "