Numbness by the sound of the explosion outside, a group of students at the Kharkiv National Medical University in East Ukraine decided it was time to go – even if it meant cross-country more than 1,500 km from their city near the Russian border to the Hungarian border in the southwest.
“One group goes on Monday. But Naveen suggests that others wait so we can bring our juniors too, as they have in Ukraine less than a year. Is the idea to leave Kharkiv on Wednesday morning,” Amit Vaishyar, a student student Finally, told Indian Express by telephone.
On Tuesday morning, Naveen SG, a four-year-old medical student from Karnataka, stepped out of the bunker, where the students had been hiding for the past six days, to buy food – and became the first victim of India in Russian invasion to Ukraine.
“Every time the curfew will be picked up, we will go together to buy food. On Tuesday, I went to bed around 3:30 a.m. and got up late. At 6am, Naveen went to bring food for all of us. Market about 50 meters from our bunker. At 7:58 a.m., he sent a message to one of us, said he lacked money and asked for some to be transferred to his account. One of us called his phone at 8:10 a.m., but a Ukraine answered the call and said he didn’t again, “Vaishyar said.