Bhopal: Short of supplies, students in bunkers left high and dry

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): We are in bunkers near Kharkiv Medical University. There are at least 200 of us and there is no food left. Many of us have fallen ill, said a Madhya Pradesh girl holed up in the bunker amid shelling and firing in Kharkiv city of Ukraine in her last conversation with Free Press over a WhatsApp call on Sunday morning.

Free Press failed to establish contact with her after 10.30 am. She said that the bunkers lacked hygienic washrooms and many girls who were menstruating were in a crunch. Despite all the drawbacks, the narrow bunker is now a home for students trying to survive the war.

A student in Ukraine who hails from Ujjain, Opil Jain, said, We received an advisory last night to turn off our location as soon as possible as Russians are targeting geo tag cluster locations. We were asked to turn off the lights and not to go near windows, if we are not in a bomb shelter underground. We were asked to maintain pin drop silence. Just as he read the text, Jain said, he heard an attack that turned the street outside into a crater.

Another student, Divya Singh, who is in Ternopil city of Ukraine said, The local administration is continuously sounding red alerts here. We are hiding in our apartments as we do not have access to bunkers. We are running out of ration and water. Shops are shut, there is no assistance from the government.

Divya told Free Press about her friend stuck in Odessa, I am unable to contact him for past seven hours. Last time, we talked, he had showed me the situation in his bunker over a video call where 12 people were there in a bunker made for five. There were last few packets of bread left with them. I could hear the shelling and bombarding over the call. They were so loud and clear as if they were happening right in front of his hiding spot.

Divya is a resident of Gulmohar in Bhopal. Her mother Shanti Singh said, Though she told me over the call to stay safe, I could sense fear in her voice. I do not know what to say. Looking at the situation at borders, we cannot even ask her to rush towards them. She is at least safe from the freezing cold, inside the city.