Agartala, March 5 : An MBBS student in war-hit Ukraine, haling from Tripura, was stuck in the basement of her rented building along with 50 others for five days before undertaking a 30-km trek to Poland, from where she was brought to India. As many as 27 Tripura students, who got stuck in Ukraine following the Rusian invasion,have been evacuated so far from Poland, Romania and Hungary under Operation Ganga, an official said on Saturday. The officials of Tripura Bhawan New Delhi have been pressed into service to receive the students at the Indira Gandhi International airport and Hindon air force station at Ghaziabad of Uttar Pradesh. Most of the Ukraine returnees have been brought to Tripura Bhawan and thereafter, they are being sent to home. “The students walked long distances to cross the geographical border of Ukraine without any cash and baggage. Each one of them travelled in distress for not less than four days. Therefore, we are bringing them to our two Bhawans and taking care of their immediate necessities before sending them back to their parents,” said an official of Delhi Tripura Bhawan. The MBBS fourth-year student Akangsha Bhoumik, studying in a medical college at Kharkiv in war-hit Eastern Ukraine, reached Friday night at the Tripura Bhawan. Sharing her horrifying experience, Bhoumik told that she had been stuck in a basement of her rented building along with 50 others for five days and reached the comparatively safer railway station in Western Ukraine after walking down 30 kilometres. “We, 10 Indian students from various eastern and northern states walked on the deserted street holding the Indian flag in our hands, which we painted before we began our journey. There were no taxis and we hardly found people in the entire stretch. We had to rush to catch the only train in the afternoon to reach the Poland border,” Bhoumik recalled. She explained a day before Russia launched an attack on Eastern Ukraine, they were advised to stock cash, drinking water and food stuff, as war was all set to begin. They couldn’t realise that the situation would be so disastrous and bought only some rice and pulses and 20 litres of water. Russia had also asserted that they wouldn’t attack or harm the civilians. “We thought in two-three days the situation will be normalised and even if the war continues, it would be between armies of two countries. But within a day, Russia hurled bombs on the civilian buildings and colonies, railway tracks, started firing and used missiles all across,” she stated, adding that not less than 60 students from Tripura would be there in Ukraine now. The situation turned volatile immediately and they got disconnected from the Indian embassy in Ukraine. The Ukrainians have also fled to Poland seeking safe shelter, but the foreign students became helpless, as tele-connectivity was also snapped, Bhoumik said. However, once they reached Poland, Indian officials took care of everything to ensure they reached Delhi. “I am upset that maybe we can’t go back to study in such a lovely country or we may have to shift to another country for completion of the degree. Ukraine as a country, its cities, the people, the colleges, courses and companies are delightful. We never thought of facing such a situation,” a tearful Bhowmik said. BB SSP