Anzeena Naushad, a fourth-year medical student in the northeastern Ukraine city of Sumy, and her friends began collecting snow from the terrace of their hostel on Friday morning.

Anzeena said she had not been able to find water to drink since Thursday night — water supply had stopped from Thursday morning following damage to the city’s water plant from shelling.

Her next sip of water would come only after the snow she has collected melts — which can take hours in Sumy’s sub-zero temperatures (minus two degrees Celsius on Friday morning).

With shelling destroying the city’s power plant too, there’s been no electricity since Thursday night — so the snow cannot be heated, nor the water boiled before drinking. The girls could not cook any food on Thursday.

Worse, if power supply is not restored soon, the 700-odd Indian students holed up in the Sumy State University’s four hostels fear their mobiles will be dead, cutting them off from the rest of the world.

Students collect snow to get water in the university. The Telegraph

“There is no water to drink or cook food with. Because there is no electricity, we cannot boil the water we have collected from the snow. There are some biscuits left. That is our lunch today,” Anzeena, who is from Kerala, wrote in a WhatsApp message.

With shelling all around and snipers on rooftops, the students are afraid to step out. Some of them have suffered anxiety attacks.

Sumy is about 48km from the Russian border. The Indian embassy has asked the students to stay back. The students say they have been told unofficially that efforts are being made to evacuate them through the Russian border.

Anzeena said she did not remove her shoes even when she slept — ready to step out at a moment’s notice when the chance to leave came.

“At the time of sleep also, we keep (our shoes on) and also the passport in our pocket,” she said.

Students inside a bunker in Sumy State University. The Telegraph

She sent a recorded video in which her friend Soumya Saji says: “Please take some action, else we all will die.”

Saji, also from Kerala, said that every time the students hear explosions, they grab their passports and run to the “bunkers” (hostel basements).

“We are very scared. This time, the noise was really extreme. The explosion was huge. The food is almost finished,” Saji said.

She said the Ukraine government was not allowing anyone to go to the Russian border. The borders with Hungary and Poland are over 1,000km away and it’s too risky to travel by road. Train connectivity has been damaged during the eight days of conflict.

“If we take a risk and go to the Russian border (without clearance from the Ukrainian government), these 700 lives will be at higher risk,” Anzeena said.

She said the students had felt a little calm during the past two days “when we were told that green corridors were open to the Russian borders”. But with no movement since then, and with “loud bombardment going on”, they are getting fearful again.

Shaikh Mohammed Danish, a fourth-year medical student, said the “bunkers” had only sitting space.

“I used to live in an apartment. But we were asked by our contractor to move to the hostels so that all the students were together,” Danish, whose family lives in Hyderabad, said. “Inside the bunker, there is no chance to sleep.”

The contractor, a Ukrainian businessman, has bought the students a supply of biscuits.

Danish said the students were feeling down. “A female student had a panic attack yesterday (Thursday). She got unconscious. She is fine now but it can be someone else too,” he said.

In a video message, a group of students from one of the hostels has issued an SOS for immediate evacuation.

“Some students of some other country had left by road and were shot at. We have videos of that. That is why we are not going,” a student said.

“We need government help. There is no information. We are told some buses are there on the Russian border. But that is of no help to us. If we step out of the hostels, there are snipers everywhere…. We will be killed if we are not helped.”

Radhika Sangwan, a student in Sumy, on Thursday tweeted: “I am a student in Sumy, Ukraine. YES WE EXIST!!! There are 700-800 students in Sumy. It is the seventh day of attack and there is no confirmed news on our evacuation. Stress, fear, and anxiety are getting to us. Hope is lost. Pls help #OpGanga”. She tagged the tweet to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

To a reply from a netizen that the students shouldn’t worry, Sangwan tweeted: “How can we not lose hope? There is no way that we can reach the border and the Ukrainian government won’t let the buses pass through the border. If we do not get out of here today then we will never get out. All we can do now is just pray. Pray that we get to meet our families again.”