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Air sirens part of life, nearly 1,500 Indian students still in Ukraine: Malayali doctor

Air sirens part of life, nearly 1,500 Indian students still in Ukraine: Malayali doctor

KOCHI: The people in Ukraine have learnt to cope with a deadly war, which began in February 2022, even as Russian bombing continue to cause civilian casualties on a daily basis, said Dr U P R Menon – who has been residing in the eastern European country for the past 40 years – in Kochi on Tuesday.
He is currently on a short visit to his ancestral house at Edappally.
'Air sirens have become a part of our lives. As they sound, we will all go to the underground shelters. The country has an underground metro system and the stations will be packed with people when the air sirens go off,' Menon said at the Changampuzha Park as part of a talk on 'Devastation Due to War: A First-Hand Account'.
While most of the foreign citizens have fled the country, many foreign students pursuing higher education have returned, he said.
'There are now only around 50 Indians continuing to reside in the country. However, there are nearly 1,500 Indian students. The medical course there is of six years. Those who were studying up to third or fourth year courses have migrated to universities in other countries like Georgia. But the students in the final year semesters (5 and 6) have returned and are studying in universities located close to eastern Europe,' he said.
Menon is set to return to Ukraine on July 19. Having settled down in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, he is running a medical consultancy there.
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