Bahrain residents who are parents of students stranded in Ukraine plead for help

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Many Bahraini residents, who are parents of students stranded in Kharkiv province of Ukraine, are having sleepless nights as their children are stuck in a terrifying war zone.

They have been urging the Indian government to speed up the evacuation process as the situation is worsening day by day.

Speaking to The Daily Tribune, Bahrain resident Stephen Jacob said that his daughter, a medical student in Ukraine, has been sheltered, along with her classmates, in the basement of a college hostel in Kharkiv for over a week now.

Mr Stephen’s daughter Hima Maria Stephen is a first-year student at Kharkiv National Medical University.

She was formerly a student of Indian School Bahrain.

Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, the Indian student who was killed in Russian shelling yesterday in Kharkiv, is also a student of Kharkiv National Medical University.

“The situation is extremely bad. I am worried about my daughter’s safety,” said Mr Stephen, who along with 12 other parents approached the Indian Embassy in the Kingdom pleading for support to bring their children home.

“I was told that many countries including Israel, Egypt and Pakistan have successfully evacuated their citizens from Kharkiv though I could not verify this claim.”

The Daily Tribune yesterday reported the ordeal faced by the daughter of another Bahrain resident, who too has been stranded in the Kharkiv province.

Ashly Prem, a former student of Asian School and Indian School Bahrain, told The Daily Tribune that she along with her classmates were being sheltered at the subway station in Kharkiv, which “is considered safe from attacks”.

“We are in touch with the Indian Mission here through a web link.

Evacuating us looks like a hard task for the embassy as this region is located on the eastern side of Ukraine and only has a border with Russia.

We are only 40km away from the Russian border.” Ashly’s father Preman Kandoth, a long-time resident in the Kingdom, is among the Indian parents having their children in Ukraine, who have sent a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting to bring them home.

Russian forces have bombarded the regional government building in Kharkiv yesterday, killing at least 10 civilians, officials were quoted by The Guardian newspaper, as a huge armoured column rolling towards the capital, Kyiv, raised fears Russia may resort to pulverising civilian areas.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba accused the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, of “murdering innocent civilians” as he tweeted a video of the huge explosion in Kharkiv’s Freedom Square, calling it a “barbaric missile strike” resulting from Putin’s inability to “break Ukraine down”.

The president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, said repeated Russian missile strikes on Kharkiv – including the latest on the central administration building, which left at least 35 wounded – amounted to state terrorism and a war crime.

“Evil, armed with rockets, bombs and artillery, must be stopped immediately, destroyed economically,” he said.