Flight to bring back Indian students in Ukraine not allowed to land at Kyiv

As the situation worsened in Ukraine over the past few days, the Indian Embassy in Kyiv asked all its nationals, including students, to temporarily leave the country. Air India operated a special flight to evacuate students from Ukraine. The flight landed in Delhi early Wednesday morning.

However, a second flight that was sent to bring more students could not land in Kyiv on Thursday as the government had shut down airports and some of the airspace had been declared dangerous.

Indian students in Ukraine reported hearing explosions early on Thursday morning after Russia announced its ‘special military action.’

“I was sleeping and my friends called me after they heard explosions,” Sohail, a student from Hyderabad in Ukraine, told an Indian newspaper. He said students began sharing videos of the explosions that could be seen in different parts of Ukraine.

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About 20,000 Indian students, including many from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, are pursuing higher education, mostly medical, dental and nursing courses in the universities there.

Many of the Ukrainian universities have good infrastructure, were established decades earlier, and offer cheaper courses than in India. Fees for an MBBS course is between $3,500 and $5,000, less than half of what it would cost in a private institution in India. The Indian Medical Council also recognises degrees from Ukraine.

Besides medicine, many Indians also pursue engineering, aviation and architecture courses in Ukraine. Indian students account for nearly a quarter of foreigners studying in the country.

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