I'm Finally Back Home After Weeks of Surviving Russian Shelling in Sumy

In India's last leg of evacuation from Ukraine, around 700 students returned home safely from Sumy.

Indian students return from Sumy.

(Photo Courtesy: The Quint/Chetan Bhakuni)

Video Producer: Varsha Rani

Video Editor: Rajbir Singh

In India's last leg of evacuation from Ukraine, around 700 students, including me, returned safely home to India from Sumy after surviving the Russian shelling and living in bunkers.

For more than a week, while the evacuation was going on in other parts of the country, my friends and I lived under constant fear and in the hope of leaving the war zone soon.

The situation in Sumy was getting worse and worse with time. The last few weeks turned out to be a nightmare for all of us. Something we never thought would happen: from hiding in bunkers to drinking melted snow due to shortage of water. And the delay in the evacuation process added to our fear and panic.

Map of Sumy.

After a long wait and multiple complaints to the Indian Embassy, on 7 March, we were informed that the evacuation process would take place for us in the next 24 hours.

From Sumy to Poltava.

Finally the day came! On 8 March, we left Sumy around 8 am in the morning. After a long journey of 12 hours, we reached our destination – Poltava, a city in Ukraine.

From Poltava, we boarded the train to Liviv (in the western part of Ukraine), which is around 70 kilometre from the Poland border.

From Poltava to Liviv.

Again from Liviv, we took a train to Poland. We reached Poland at around 3 am and stayed in a shelter home that was set up with the help of some NGOs and the Indian Embassy for the next eight to 12 hours.

From Liviv to Poland.

Map of Poland.

Back to India on 11 March. 

We finally reached Poland airport at around 6:30 pm. After waiting for a few hours and going through security checks, we boarded the flight to India.

On 11 March, we landed in New Delhi at around 5 am. It was such a relief to be back home after everything that we have been through in the last few weeks. We can't wait to meet our families.

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