According to students, they had to travel for more than seven hours to reach the airport in Romania, from where they were brought to Mumbai in Air India special flights.
Six students studying in Ukraine returned to Rajkot after landing at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport– Mumbai on Sunday evening. The six of them are students at a University in Chernivtsi, which is 40 km from the Romania border, which is to the west of the war-torn country. According to students, they had to travel for more than seven hours to reach the airport in Romania, from where they were brought to Mumbai in Air India special flights.
Rajkot District Collector Arun Mahesh Babu welcomed these students. Speaking to reporters, Babu said, “We have a list of 45 students, who are stranded there. We are in frequent touch with them. We will be able to bring them back.” “We were safe in our university. But we were evacuated from the country because the government there wanted to accommodate their citizens affected due to war,” a student said.
Happy Bhalani, a Ukraine-returnee, recalled her horrifying five days which she spent in the country. She said, “When we heard explosion for the first time on February 23, we all were scared. It was a horrifying experience. The university arranged bus transport to Romania border and from there the officials took us to the airport in the same bus. After a drive of seven hours, we embarked on to an Air India flight to Mumbai.