New Delhi: Amid the chaos and devastation Ukraine is experiencing with the invasion conducted by Russia, several civilians including citizens from India and other foreign countries are stranded in the war-torn countries. While many have managed to go back to their homeland safely, some are still trying their best to escape from Ukraine.
Among them, a third-year engineering student who is stranded in Ukraine has refused to leave the war-torn country without his pet dog. Rishabh Kaushik, who studies at the Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics in east Ukraine, is continually trying to do away with all the paper works and clearances so that his dog can accompany him when he takes a flight back home, however, the officials have stonewalled him as they “keep asking for more and more documents.”
“They are asking for my air ticket. How can I have an air ticket when the Ukrainian airspace is closed?” he said.
Kaushik claimed that he reached out to the Indian government’s Animal Quarantine and Certification Service (AQCS) in Delhi and also the Indian embassy in Ukraine, but so far nothing has been done. A video was uploaded on social media where he stated that he called someone at Delhi’s IGI airport telling about his situation but the person on the other side abused him and did not cooperate.
See the video:
“I would have been in India right now had the Indian government given me the required NOC (no objection certificate) as per the laws,” said Kaushik as he hides in a bunker in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. Amid sirens going off and sounds of gunfire and bombing can be heard with the intensifying of the war in Ukraine, he has come up from the bunker to keep his pet warm as it is freezing underground.
Talking about his pet ‘Malibu,’ he said that he got the rescue puppy last February in Kharkiv.
“I am stuck here since my flight was on February 27,” he said. Meanwhile, introducing his pet, he said that the poor little creature is stressed out and “crying all the time” because of the constant bombing.
“If you can, please help us. Even the Indian embassy in Kyiv is not helping us out. We don’t have updates from anyone,” he said in an appeal to the Indian government.
