Around 5 am on Thursday, 22-year-old Vishu was woken up by a loud thud. A series of thuds followed, making the ground shake. Vishu, a fourth-year medical student at Kyiv Medical University in Ukraine, and his three other flatmates panicked.

“The blasts took place very far away from residential areas but we could feel the shockwaves,” Vishu told Scroll.in over the phone from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

It started with three blasts in rapid succession, followed by two more blasts 10-15 minutes later. “Around an hour later, there was another blast,” Vishu recounted.

Dazed and scared, Vishu and his flatmates were initially unable to comprehend the source of the blasts. It was his parents in Haryana who broke the news to them on the phone – Russia had invaded Ukraine. “Since India is ahead of Ukrainian time, they had a better update of the situation,” Vishu said.

As the morning progressed, there was more bad news. “We also got to know that the airspace had been closed, which meant that we couldn’t get on a flight to India,” Vishu added.

Early in the morning on February 24, Russia launched strikes on several Ukrainian cities, from Kharkiv in the east to the capital of Kyiv to the port of Odessa in the south. This was followed by reports of Russian troops entering Ukraine at several points.

As the scale of the invasion was revealed, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine advised Indian citizens in the country to “maintain calm and remain safe wherever you are”. The embassy also asked Indians travelling to Kyiv in a bid to flee the country to “return to their respective cities temporarily, especially towards safer places along the western bordering countries.”

With the Ukrainian airspace closed, the Indian ministry of external affairs said on Thursday that it was exploring alternative routes out of the country.

For the moment, Vishu and thousands of other Indian students are stranded in Ukraine. According to rough estimates by various student consultancy services in India, there are around 18,000-20,000 Indian students in Ukraine. Most of them study in medical schools across the East European country.

‘We have to survive’

Vishu said he and his flatmates were planning to stay indoors for now. They had already spoken to the student consultant who had facilitated their study in Ukraine.

“They said they are in touch with the Indian embassy,” he said. “They promised that whenever there is word of reopening the airspace, they’ll inform us. Till then, we have to survive.”

Outside, he could see residents of Kyiv lining up in front of stores to stock up on groceries. “The situation in the residential areas is normal except that people can be seen shopping for essentials. Buses and trams are plying normally,” Vishu said.

Vishu and his friends also went to the grocery stores in the morning, “because we have to prepare for every situation”. For now, they were focusing on basic routines. “Our classes are online,” he said. “There was panic in the morning but things have settled a bit now.”

Back home, his family is worried. “If given a chance we will go home but, at the same time, the situation is not so bad that one can’t survive,” he said.

The missed flight

Dixit Lucktoo, a 21-year-old medical student from Himachal Pradesh, narrowly missed leaving the country. He was scheduled to fly back to India on Friday but with the airspace now closed to commercial airlines, his flight has been cancelled.

Lucktoo, a third-year student at the National Pirogov Memorial Medical University in Vinnytsya, said the Indian Embassy had been vague about the evacuation of Indians over the last few weeks, as tensions built up between Russia and Ukraine. “There was no clarity from the Indian Embassy on what to do,” Dixit told Scroll.in over phone from Vinnytsya, which is about 200 kilometres south west of Kyiv.

On January 25, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine asked Indian citizens in the country to fill up an online form with their personal details so as to “coordinate with Indian citizens effectively, and disseminate information in a swift manner”. Nearly three weeks later, the embassy advised “students whose stay is not essential” to consider leaving Ukraine “temporarily.” It also advised Indian citizens to avoid “non-essential travel to and within Ukraine.”

Lucktoo said he could not leave earlier because he had examinations. “For third and sixth year students, there’s an important paper which you can’t miss,” he said. “If you miss that paper, you can’t study further. It’s very important for us and our university also told us to stay back.”

As tensions grew, Lucktoo eventually decided to leave Ukraine without taking the exam, but by then it was too late. Lucktoo said Vinnytsya had not been among the cities targeted by the early morning strikes but there was panic.

“Sirens and announcements are being made in the city, asking people to watch television for announcements and adhere to them,” he said. “The government has also asked citizens to take out their money from the banks in order to not run out of cash in case the crisis aggravates. We also heard that the Ukrainian army is conducting drills on the borders of every city.”

Later in the day, there were reports that Russian missiles had struck an ammunition depot in Vinnytsya.

‘Costly tickets’

On February 18, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine announced that Air India would start operating three flights from Kyiv to Delhi to meet the “uncertainties of the current situation.”

Divij Singla, who runs a student consultancy service in Chandigarh for Indians wishing to study in Ukraine, said many more could have been evacuated had there been a check on air ticket prices. “The flights charged three times more than the normal fare for evacuation. The prices should have been capped when the students were in a state of panic,” Singla said.

A Kashmiri medical student trapped in Kyiv, who did not wish to be named, said that he had wanted to fly home much earlier but could not afford the exorbitant fares. “The ticket cost Rs 70,000. It’s simply unaffordable for me,” he said.

Singla said he and his team in Ukraine were in touch with the Indian Embassy in order to assure the safe evacuation of Indian students. “Students are in universities and hotels,” he said. “There’s a sense of panic but the embassy has assured [us] that everyone will be brought home safely once the situation gets normal in some days.”

Meanwhile, Lucktoo, who stays in a flat with two friends from India, said the Indian government should address the situation before it gets worse. “If Kyiv airport is closed, they can fly us home from some other airport through chartered flights. We want to be in our country,” he said.