Kritika, one of the students who were evacuated from war-hit Ukraine on Saturday, came forward to cast her vote in the seventh and last phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections today.
Kritika, who exercised her franchise at a polling booth in Varanasi, told NDTV that she felt it was her responsibility to cast vote, even though she was yet to overcome the "scary" circumstances she faced in the conflict-ridden country.
The districts where polls are underway in this phase are Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra.
Kritika said she, along with other stranded students, reached the Poland border from Kharkiv on her own in a bid to flee Ukraine.
"We self-evacuated ourselves and got help from Indian embassy officials after reaching the border point," she said.
As uncertainty looms over the education of medical students who have returned from Ukraine, Kritika said she too was not sure if evacuees can continue their studies in India.
"I will stay back if the Prime Minister allows us to continue our studies here, or else I am ready to go back to Ukraine."
AdvertisementOver the past week, more than 16,000 Indian students have been evacuated from Ukraine under 'Operation Ganga'.
Barring Kharkiv and Sumy, almost all Indians from the remaining regions of Ukraine have been evacuated.
AdvertisementRussian forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, three days after Moscow recognized Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - as independent entities.
