Ranchi based Arpita Prasad, a fifth-year medical student of Vinnitsa National Medical University, returned home from war-torn Ukraine on Monday after being stranded in the conflict zone for days.

Prasad, who is a resident of Satellite Colony, is the first among over a hundred Jharkhandis in Ukraine to come back to the state safe. Officials in the state control room said two other students, Sakshi Singh of Bokaro and Aditi Sharma of Jamshedpur, were expected to return on March 2.

Arpita was welcomed by officials of the state control room in the presence of her parents at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport in the afternoon. She did not speak to the media at the airport. Later, talking to reporters briefly at her residence she said she was among 300 people who wre evacuated by the Indian government via a special flight last night from Bucharest. They landed in Delhi on Monday morning from where she took a flight to Ranchi.

She said the war in Ukraine changed everything for students and others overnight. “It was a nightmare... thinking whether we will be able to ever come back home. Due to the panic, we couldn’t sleep for days and somehow managed to reach Romania on Friday night with other Indian students from our university by travelling for over 12 hours in a private bus,” she said.

Since the Romanian border was closed, they had to spend the night in the bus in freezing cold. “On Sunday night, we managed to reach Bucharest airport after the border was opened and boarded the India flight,” she added.

The Jharkhand government has so far compiled a list of 158 people of the state who are in Ukraine. It is coordinating with the Centre to bring them back.

Bishwanath Das, father of Aditya Raj, a first-year medical student, also of Vinnitsa National Medical University, is hoping to see his son on Tuesday. Speaking over telephone, Das said, “We couldn’t speak to him properly due to poor network. But my son told us over Whatsapp that they had managed to arrange a private bus and would reach Romania at 4.30am on Tuesday. Hopefully, they will be on the list of those slated for evacuation by the government of India.”