Baliapal: Two medical students of Baliapal and Basta area in Balasore district have returned home safely from war-ravaged Ukraine.
They are Bibekananda Patra of Srirampur village under Baliapal block and Akash Parida of Kaenda under Basta block.
However, their hearts are still heavy with nightmarish memories of survival in war-torn Ukraine. The two recounted the horror they went through for seven days amid missile attacks from Russia.
“At every step, life was fraught with danger. Fearing for life, we had to spend seven days inside a bunker, just 300 metres away from the place in Kharkiv where Russian forces were attacking with grenades.
Every moment was tense and scary. It was a nightmare to hope for survival with a cloud on the horizon,” the two said.
The missile and grenade attacks were so intense and frightening after February 24 that we had lost all hopes of survival.
“Horror prevailed everywhere. The town where we used to stay had been completely ravaged by aerial attacks. It resembled a ghost town. Piles of rubble and blazing fires were visible all over the town. We were terrified and memories of our village and families came flooding our minds,” they bemoaned.
After seven days, the two along with others ventured out from the bunker in Kharkiv and managed to hire a taxi to the nearby station.
From there, they came to Budapest after crossing the Hungary border and then they were flown to New Delhi under Operation Ganga of the Central government. After reaching home and reuniting with family members, they are on cloud nine.
PNN