It has been only a few days since Kritika returned home after escaping a full-blown war in Ukraine where she was studying at a university in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city. A resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Cantt Vidhan Sabha constituency, she today cast her vote in the seventh and the last phase of the state polls.
Speaking to India Today about her harrowing experience in Ukraine, she said, “I was in Kharkiv. We were being bombed every 30 minutes to an hour. I was stuck in my hostel’s bunker for five days. We had no food to eat, no water to drink.”
As the ground troops began moving in and Russian airstrikes devastated city after city, she made her way to Poland on her own along with a group of stranded students, Kritika said, after exercising her franchise at a booth in Varanasi. Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra also voted in this phase.
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“Students who have returned from Ukraine should be allowed to finish their education in India. The fees charged by private medical colleges should be reduced,” she added.
Her father, relieved after his daughter’s return, said, “I am very happy she is back. For a while, we had thought she would not be able to return.”
Thanking the government for bringing back Indians from the bordering countries, he said, “The situation showed the real value of the Indian flag. Students of other countries also carried India’s flag to escape from there. The governments – both at the Centre and the states – have done an incredible job.”
” Students and other nationals stood in the snow for 10-12 hours at the border to enter Poland. The Ukrainians were given priority to cross,” her mother told India Today.
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“The private colleges have such inflated fees that we are forced to send our children abroad. So, I would like to urge the government to increase the number of seats at private institutes and reduce the fees. I would also like to request that students who have come back from Ukraine are given an opportunity to finish their studies in India so that they don’t have to go out again,” she added.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 in a pre-dawn attack, India has flown back over 18,000 citizens from the war-ravaged country under Operation Ganga. Union ministers have been deployed to Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia – the countries sharing borders with Ukraine – to assist with the evacuation of Indians who have managed to escape from Ukraine.
Almost all Indians have been brought back, except for students who remain cooped up in shelters and underground bunkers in Kharkiv and Sumy.
The last phase of the UP polls today brought the curtain down on the marathon five-state elections, spanning almost a month. Votes will be counted on March 10.
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