At least 30 Bangladeshi medical students have been stranded in Ukraine’s Lugansk city ahead of a planned government offensive against pro-Russian militias, who are occupying several important buildings.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune over phone from the embattled eastern city yesterday, one of the students at Lugansk State Medical University expressed concerns about their safety as there is no Bangladesh mission in the country to arrange their evacuation.
“We come to know that the Ukrainian forces have encircled the city and plan to carry out a military offensive against pro-Russian militias. They have occupied the government buildings. Thirty of us (from Bangladesh) are in the middle of the war zone,” Liton Chandra Bhowmick, a student, said. “Please save us.”
He added that the Indian mission in Ukraine had already evacuated their students. “But here, we have no guardian. We have to contact the Bangladesh mission in Moscow,” said Liton, who comes from Koshbain Brahmanbaria district.
He said they had telephoned the foreign ministry in Dhaka to ask for help.
Foreign ministry officials, meanwhile, said they had already referred the matter to the Bangladesh embassy in Moscow, which oversees diplomatic relations with Kiev.
“We will try our best to protect our students from any probable danger,” an official who answered Liton’s phone call told the Dhaka Tribune.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
