Grateful For Operation Ganga But What Lies Ahead?: Ukraine Returnee Indian Students A Year After Russian Invasion

It was February 24, 2022. The war in Ukraine had just begun to take a shape and so did the quest to safely bring all stranded Indian students back home.

Confined in bunkers with no food, water, or electricity, and with continuous blasts and shelling around them, the horrors that Indian students faced following the invasion of Ukraine can never be forgotten. While it seemed like there was no light at the end of the tunnel for many, the Indian government carried out a mission to evacuate stranded Indian students from the war-torn nation under Operation Ganga. 

However, the journey to evacuate wasn’t all that simple. Students narrated tales of how they were held hostage with no way to escape.

“The Ukraine military forces are beating students, their passports are being torn so that they don’t crowd those areas. Videos have gone viral. It’s a very, very heartbreaking situation there,” Kuldeep, a resident of Hisar, Haryana, had told Outlook earlier. 

Prior to the evacuation, several Indian students devised their own strategies to escape from the war-torn nation. Thousands of students walked amid freezing weather conditions for 14 to 18 kms to reach relatively safer destinations of Pisochyn towards the Russian border. They walked for about two hours to reach the station and to take the train to Lviv city towards the Slovakian border in the western part of the country. While they were on the road, bombings and shelling continued.

“A bomb exploded at some distance from us and we all lay on the ground. The earth shook for a while and we thought we might not survive,” a girl, who was part of the group, had earlier told Outlook on a WhatsApp call.

Recalling stories of how students lost hope, another Ukraine returnee, Harsh Goel, an MBBS student currently in his fourth year at Ivano-Frankvisk National Medical University (IFNMU), recalls his journey. Speaking to Outlook, he says, “When I got a call from my home, I told my father that if I will not be able to cross the border today, then I will return to the city because I do not want to stand in this line because I fear I might die." He was at the border with other such stranded students.

At the height of tensions between the two countries, several students’ requests to the Indian Embassy regarding evacuation fell on deaf ears. Many of them decided to travel on their own and took shelter in nearby countries such as Romania. The students were pleasantly surprised to see Romanian citizens standing there to welcome them with warmth and love while there was not a single Indian officer to receive or guide them on what had to be done next.

“There is no communication with the Embassy, no facility for food and water and no information about how we will reach India. Romanian citizens are coming and offering us food here,” Deepanshu Gautam, a 3rd-year MBBS student, who made it to Bucharest with his friends from a shelter home in Kyiv, says.

While they acknowledge the efforts of the Indian government, students tell Outlook ahead of the one-year mark of the invasion that India could have done better. Many universities started online classes for students once they reached their home countries.

“We received full support from our universities in terms of online classes in March. But it was a sudden change for us -- from in-person to online classes,” Harsh tells.

This held true especially for those students who wished to become doctors and surgeons and pursue other courses in the medical profession who continue to stare at an uncertain future. Of the 22,000 students who returned from Ukraine, around 4,000 final-year students were allowed to complete their mandatory internships in medical colleges in India. 

The rest were seeking accommodation from the National Medical Council (NMC) and the Central government in medical colleges in India. But the NMC refused, prompting the students to file a petition in the Supreme Court. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had told the court in a written submission that the present law in India doesn’t allow colleges to give admission to these students. These students were not able to go to Ukraine for offline classes due to the war and their degrees would be considered invalid by the NMC if studies are done through online mode. 

“We left no stone unturned to ensure that our degrees are safe - campaigns, protests, hunger strikes. We met so many MPs and ministers and requested the Health Ministry as well but there is still a huge question mark left regarding our future,” Harsh adds.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare attempted to reconcile with the students’ concerns by introducing the Academic Mobility Programme under which universities of Ukraine have tied up with universities in other countries where students can complete their remaining studies till the time situation becomes normal there. However, students have rejected the programme given that many of the said universities have refused to entertain their applications due to numerous similar requests. 

Archita, one of the main petitioners in the case at the Supreme Court and a student, tells that many students had to drop out from their institutions as a compromise owing to financial restrictions. The Supreme Court had earlier last month adjourned a batch of petitions that sought accommodation for these students, for a period of six weeks.

“The Supreme Court has heard our case multiple times but there hasn’t been one solid conclusion yet. The court directed the Centre and the NMC to find out a solution to accommodate students but till now we haven’t got any help from them. They had also said that if they can’t accommodate students they will help them with the transfer but we have not got any such help so far,” she tells Outlook. 

Students said that while they are grateful for the Operation Ganga, their dreams, future career plans and education are still in limbo. Left with no option, some students like Harsh are planning or have made their journey back to the war-torn nation to continue their studies. However, the situation is still grave in the country. Students are studying without water and electricity only to finish their studies and get their degree, Archita said. Others have taken a transfer to colleges in Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan among others which has proven to be a costly way out of the situation.