Ukraine: Two foreign students tell us about evacuating their 'second home'

A few days after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, foreign students trapped in the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy appealed for urgent evacuation. On 4 March, Mohammad Mahtab Raza, a 23-year-old medical student at Sumy State University, told the FRANCE 24 Observers team about his concerns. He and his classmates were afraid to walk outside as they could hear air strikes constantly. Their fear only increased after a 21-year-old Indian student was killed in Kharkiv on 1 March.

On March 8, some humanitarian corridors were opened, enabling foreign students to evacuate. According to the governor of the Sumy region, about 3,5000 civilians left Sumy on March 8, including nearly 1,700 foreign students.

'The journey from Sumy to the Polish border was very long, and we were terrified'

After a long journey, Mohammad Mahtab Raza is finally back home in India with his family. He spoke to us about his plight.

“[On 6 March], the university staff told us that we would evacuate the next day. But on 7 March, when lots of my fellow students were already in the bus, they received a message saying the evacuation plans had been postponed. On March 8, at 8.am, we managed to finally evacuate.

On his Twitter account, Mohammad regularly posted videos with his fellow students and kept his followers updated about the situation. In this video, he spoke from Poland.

“We took a bus from Sumy to Poltava, then a train to Lviv. We arrived in Poland at 5.23am on 9 March. The journey from Sumy to Lviv and from Lviv to the Polish border seemed endless.

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'The Ukrainians helped us evacuate'

We were very scared on the bus ride. I saw thousands of tanks and soldiers along the whole road. It was impossible to sleep. When we arrived in Poland, we were all very happy. 

The Ukrainians helped us evacuate, and distributed some food between Sumy and Poltava. Then the Indian embassy took care of our meals between Lviv and Poland. I am very happy to be back home.

'We want to return to Ukraine as soon as possible. This is our second home'

Some students living in cities further west or in central Ukraine left the country in the early days of the war. For example, 19-year-old Vukile Dlamini, from Eswatini, fled on February 26. She had previously been studying medicine in Vinnytsia, a town relatively untouched by the conflict for the time being.

Eight missiles have targeted the airport in Vinnytsia, but the buildings are relatively unaffected for now. When I was there, we often heard sirens and had to hide in bunkers. Even if there was no fighting, as we were three hours from Kyiv, we were afraid that the Russians would arrive very quickly. 

So on Friday 26 February, I escaped on a bus with some other students from Eswatini and Zimbabwe. We ordered the bus ourselves, which cost us about 100,000 hryvnia in total (2,500 each, or 77 euros).

After an 8-hour drive, the bus dropped us off almost 20 kilometres from the Romanian border. There was a lot of traffic so we walked the rest of the way. On the way, some Ukrainians offered us tea and biscuits.

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'I waited seven hours to cross the border'

At the Romanian border, the situation became more complicated: there was one entrance for Ukrainians, and another for foreigners. Lots of people were from the African continent, the Middle East, or India. The Ukrainian soldiers didn’t let us through, whereas they let nationals through. I waited for 7 hours before being able to cross the border. When it was finally my turn, the Ukrainians closed the gate right after me. I was pushed from behind, while the border guards held the door.

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At the Romanian border, the situation became more complicated: there was one entrance for Ukrainians, and another for foreigners. Lots of people were from the African continent, the Middle East, or India. The Ukrainian soldiers didn’t let us through, whereas they let nationals through. I waited for 7 hours before being able to cross the border. When it was finally my turn, the Ukrainians closed the gate right after me. I was pushed from behind, while the border guards held the door.

Soldiers broke the shoulder of a young man from Zimbabwe who I was travelling with. Another student was kicked in the face and a gun was pointed at him [Vukile has no footage of this scene, but there have been several scenes of discrimination and border violence in Poland].

When we arrived in Romania, we took a bus to Bucharest, where we stayed in a hotel. Everything was organised by a pastor linked to our embassy. Then I flew back home a few days later.  

We want to return to Ukraine as soon as possible, when the war is over. This is our second home.

Vukile returned home to Eswatini on March 4. Since her return, she has been running a support group to help those still in Ukraine.

Ukrainian civilians and foreign students still stranded

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 3 million people had fled Ukraine by March 15. About 157,000 are foreigners.

But civilians are still unable to leave the country. In the southern city of Kherson, which is now controlled by the Russian army, dozens of African students are stranded, with no concrete information about a possible evacuation.