‘Guards kicking us’: Students say being turned away at border checkpoints

At the Shehyni-Medyka border between Ukraine and Poland, some Indian students have been stranded for over 72 hours to be cleared for evacuation.

A student from Vadodara told The Indian Express, “We have been waiting in the freezing cold since Friday evening and the Ukrainian border guards are not allowing us to cross over to Poland… They have segregated the girls and boys. Some of the girls were allowed to go after 40 hours but thereafter, there has not been a single Indian allowed. They are hitting and kicking Indian students, who are asking questions and telling us to return to our universities. Some of us are injured too…”

Gyanisha Patel from Vadodara, who along with her friend cleared the Shehyni check post on Sunday, took close to 36 hours to exit from Ukraine on Monday evening. “We were made to wait even after being allowed to cross the check post. They were just not willing to stamp our passports for the exit. We have now reached Poland and are awaiting further instructions from the Embassy of India. We have been given to understand that since very few Indian students have been allowed to cross over, we are not a sufficient number for the repatriation flight to take off… Our friends back in Ukraine are at risk and we are worried about them.”

Further away in the Ukraine capital Kyiv, a fourth-year medical student from Vadodara said with the advisory from the Embassy of India, the students have decided to leave. “However, we are also terrified… We have heard that there have been attacks on Indian students in the other borders.”