In Ukraine, foreign students live the war to the rhythm of Ukrainians. Many of them have no news from their embassies. Isolated, with no evacuation plan or emergency number to contact, they are experiencing the situation very badly and are calling on their governments to organize their repatriation.
Many students feel lonely in their apartments in the big industrial city of Kharkiv. The city has not fallen to Russian troops, but intense fighting continues in the area, according to the Pentagon. They have received no sign from their country's authorities since the start of the Russian invasion
They feel isolated because they have no news from their embassies. Some of these embassies have told them that if they go to the border with Poland, in Lviv, they will be taken care of there but there is nothing yet.
For two days, the daily life of the students has turned into a nightmare. During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, at 4 a.m., the shaking of the windows of their buildings and the bombings aroused them from their sleep.
Before that, everything was calm. They didn't know that they could wake up like that, overnight, with a lump in their stomachs.
The stations and the banks are closed, the metros are at a standstill, the buses too. The bombardments take place at one end of the city. People have been sleeping in the subways for two days, their parents are so scared and they don't know what will happen the next day. After being woken up by bombardments, they expect just about anything.
On a WhatsApp conversation group, students of all nationalities exchange advice and experiences by hundreds of messages. Everyone wants to get out of the country, but in most Ukrainian cities, renting a car or finding a taxi has become a real obstacle course.
The problem in Poland is that a lot of people are already trying to cross the border. They therefore do not know when they will be allowed to cross it. All appeal to their governments to organize their repatriation.
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