A 23-year-old Indian who left Kyiv on the third day of the Russian invasion was on an evacuation flight that landed in Delhi on Wednesday morning, to be welcomed by a battery of government officials and a Union minister.
But for the 96 preceding hours, Joydeep Dutta and seven other companions were left largely to fend for themselves.
Dutta, a fourth-year MBBS student at Kyiv Medical University, left his apartment on Boryspilska Street in the afternoon of February 26, accompanied by his sister and six other Indian students.
From Kyiv, the group reached Lviv, near the Poland border. But crossing the border proved a daunting task and needed multiple attempts. Their journey spanned hundreds of kilometres by bus, taxi, train and on foot.
They fought hunger and braved freezing conditions. They witnessed cruelty and benevolence, both from unexpected quarters, and kept swinging between despair and hope.
The Telegraph spoke to Dutta, who hails from Jharkhand and has maternal uncle’s house in Durgapur, over the past few days and during his train ride on the Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express on Wednesday.
Cabbie and women
A taxi driver in Lviv offered to drop the group near the Budomierz (a village in southeastern Poland) border. The driver of the SUV took 1,200 Hryvnia (around Rs 3,000) from each and promised to drive the group to safety.
But some 25km from the border, the driver swerved off the road and pulled up at a spot where some other cars were parked.
He refused to go any further, citing “heightened tensions” at the border. When he refused a refund, a fight broke out between him and the group.
“But a couple of other Ukrainian drivers soon joined him and we backed off,” Dutta said.
No other car was available and the group decided to walk the remaining distance.
After walking for close to four hours in the afternoon, the team was on the verge of “giving up”. “We had been without food for almost 24 hours,” said Dutta.
But as they arrived near the main road clogged with vehicles headed towards the border, a heart-warming sight awaited. Scores of local women were distributing water and food to the foreigners leaving the country.
“We ate sandwiches and drank juice. It was like a lease of life,” Dutta said.
At a checkpost some 20km from the border, the group came across a Ukrainian army officer. Seeing their papers and apprised of their plight, the officer arranged for a free taxi for Dutta and his group for the remaining journey till the border.
Friends from Pakistan
On a bus from Lviv to the Poland border and back, Dutta and his companions became friends with a group of five from Pakistan. They were medical students in Ternopil, a city in west Ukraine.
“We were short on water. They gave us their bottles to drink from,” said Dutta.
Hindi, the common language, also helped in forging a bond between the two groups.
The Pakistani students said they relied on the Indian embassy and Indian friends for critical information more than they did on their embassy.
Dutta said he would try to connect with them on social media. He has remembered two names — Irfan, from Lahore, and Abdul, from Karachi.
Sorry, we’re full
On February 24 and 25, Dutta and his friends spent the nights in underground bunkers.
A bombing on the government quarters in Darnytsia, barely 2km from their home, had the group shaken.
“We had called up the embassy to seek shelter. But we were told that many others had already taken shelter at the embassy and it was not possible to accommodate more people. We were told to stay put and wait,” said Dutta.
The group decided to take matters in their own hands and try to escape. They travelled on foot from Boryspilska Street to Vyrlytsia Metro station, around 7km away. En route, they were stopped by Ukrainian soldiers who let them go after checking their papers.
They took a Metro to Vokzalna and then a long-distance train to Lviv.
The railway station at Vokzalna was brimming with people desperate to flee the country.
“We missed one train because of the rush. People were literally fighting for a slot inside. Men in uniform had to resort to baton charge to control the situation. A guard pushed us into the last coup of the next train,” said Dutta.
The train journey
lasted around eight hours. By the time the group reached Lviv, it was 5.30am on February 27. They had almost run out of food and had only water.
Picture sent by Joydeep Dutta shows vehicles headed towards the Poland border on February 28 evening .
So near, yet so far
Lviv seemed “the most crowded and most chaotic” place in the world. People from all over Ukraine, including tens of thousands of foreigners, made up the crowd.
Dutta and the rest had to wait for seven hours in the open in freezing conditions before they could board a bus to the Poland border. The fare for each ticket was 2,500 Hryvnia (Rs 6,300), ten times the usual price.
Just when the group thought the journey was nearing its end, the bus was stopped by soldiers at a checkpost, a few kilometres from the border.
There is a bar on young Ukrainians leaving the country. The soldiers routinely check vehicles headed to the border to enforce the ban.
“But a soldier shouted that even young male foreigners would not be allowed to leave the country,” said Dutta.
An argument started and many passengers refused to get down. Neither side seemed to budge.
A deal was eventually brokered. The bus would take the passengers back to the bus stand and refund the money.
Back in Lviv, early on February 28, and “drowned in frustration”, Dutta got a call from a Bihari friend who is also studying MBBS in Kyiv. He had crossed the border at Budomierz, which was “relatively safer”. He suggested the same route for Dutta.
At home
The cab — one arranged by the army officer — dropped them near the border around 8pm on February 28. A series of checks and immigration formalities in a serpentine queue took up several hours — including a brief but sharp spell of snowfall.
On the other side of the border, when Dutta set foot in Rzeszow, a city in southeastern Poland, it was 4am on March 1.
An Indian embassy official was waiting for the students with the Tricolour.
“Seeing the flag worked like magic. Finally, we felt at home,” he said.
They spent time at a hotel before boarding the Delhi-bound flight around 7.30pm (Poland time) on Tuesday.
Route map
Picture sent by Joydeep Dutta shows people fleeing Ukraine wait at the Poland border for immigration clearance the same night
• Joydeep Dutta and his friends left their apartment in Kyiv for Vyrlytsia Metro station around 4pm (Ukraine time).
• They took a Metro to Vokzalna, the main railway station of Kyiv, and from there a 9pm train to Lviv, about 550km away, near the Poland border. The train left Vokzalna without delay.
February 27
• They reached Lviv around 5am and waited for seven hours for a bus to the Poland border. The bus left at 1.15pm
• After around five hours, the bus was stopped at a checkpost and it had to eventually return to Lviv
February 28
• Back to Lviv around 2.30am
• The group booked a cab and left Lviv at noon. They reached the Poland border near Budomierz around 8pm
March 1
• Reached shelter arranged for Indians in Rzeszow in Poland around 4.30am; boarded flight to Delhi at 7.30pm
March 2
• Dutta reached Delhi around 9.30am. He was on a Rajdhani when The Telegraph spoke to him last on Wednesday