Udupi student returns home from Ukraine to a warm welcome

Three more on their way back, while three are in bunkers in the crisis-hit country

A student from Udupi pursuing medical education in Ukraine returned home on Monday bringing much relief to his family members. He was among the seven from the district stranded in the crisis-hit country.

Mrinal (19), first year MBBS student at Ivano-Fran Kivsk National Medical University, Kahaimkiv Street-31, was given a warm welcome by his father Rajesh and mother Sandhya when he reached Sampige Nagar near Udyavara in Udupi at about 7 p.m.

His grandmother Vasanthi was too happy seeing her grandson back home.

Mrinal told presspersons that he and others had to walk 6 km in harsh winter after a bus that ferried a batch of students could not take them till the Romanian border — Siret.

Once they crossed the border at Siret, the Romanian Government’s gesture was more impressive, he said and added that all of them were given food and water free.

He said that Indian Embassy buses ferried them from the Romanian border to Bucharest airport. “I appreciate the Union Government for bearing the flight charges from Bucharest to Bengaluru via Delhi. I travelled from Bengaluru to Mangaluru on a bus,” he said.