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Why and how Indian students are returning to Ukraine despite ongoing war – The Indian Express

Seven months after the Russia-Ukraine war forced nearly 20,000 Indian students, most of them studying medicine in Ukraine, to return home to India, many are now making the journey back to their colleges in the war-torn European country, even as the war continues. More Indian students are expected to head back to Ukraine in coming weeks after the government of India told the Supreme Court that they cannot be accommodated in Indian colleges and universities. A look at how and why Indian students are choosing to head back to the war-ravaged country.

At the height of the war, the students had mostly left Ukraine after crossing the borders of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia or Romania, but now, as they return, they have been doing so via Moldova, a small country to the southwest of Ukraine. With the airspace over Ukraine still closed, the students have been taking a connecting flight from Delhi, with an eight-hour layover at Istanbul (Turkey), which takes them to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. From there, they further take a bus to get across the border, and thereafter another bus to the city where they study. Most of the students have been returning to western Ukraine cities such as Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia which, they say, are comparatively safer and away from war zones. However, some students have also started returning to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.

Why the Moldova route?

Students say that returning to Ukraine via Moldova is the easiest and most hassle-free option available currently because the country has been issuing e-visas. One just has to apply online and we get the visa within 3-7 days. Other neighbouring countries such as Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania have cumbersome visa processes. Visa applications of many students have been rejected by these countries. These countries offer Schengen visa which takes too much time and is mostly rejected. Moldova, on the other hand, is offering e-visa, both in transit and tourist categories, which is approved within days and is also cheaper, said a student who has returned via Moldova.

Students are now spending close to Rs 1 lakh for returning to Ukraine and this includes air ticket cost, visa and other miscellaneous expenses. However, some agents are charging students as much as Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 for arranging visas for Moldova. Kritee Suman, a student who returned via Moldova, says, The air ticket can cost at least 60k and the visa fee for Moldova is 60 Euros (Rs 4,700 approximately). Even if we add other expenses, a visa cannot cost more than Rs 10k so students should apply on their own instead of paying agents who are fleecing students. I spent around Rs 1 lakh on my return trip to Ukraine.

Are students facing inconveniences on their return trips?

Unlike the times when they had to reach borders on foot, braving extreme weather and other difficulties while leaving Ukraine when the war had started, students say returning to Ukraine is hassle-free so far. After my 16-hour flight to Chisinau, including an eight-hour layover at Istanbul, I got a direct bus to cross the border and reach Ukraine. A 10-hour bus ride then took me to Ivano where I study. There was no hassle, said Suman. My visa for Moldova came just in 3 days.

In March, after the war broke out, students who were in panic, had reached the borders of Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia on foot after walking for 1-2 days, and were evacuated through special flights operated by the Government of India under Operation Ganga. Some were also evacuated via Moldova.

Since they returned to India in March, the fate of these students had been uncertain with India maintaining that there is no provision to accommodate them in medical colleges and universities in the country. With the Union Ministry of Health submitting in the Supreme Court on September 15 that these students cannot be accommodated in Indian medical colleges and universities, adding that any such transfers would seriously hamper standards of medical education in India, students say theres hardly any option left but to return to Ukraine and complete their studies.

The students who are returning are mostly in the third to sixth year of their courses in Ukrainian medical universities. They say they were left with little choice but to head back given practical difficulties involved in taking a transfer to universities in other countries, and the need for hands-on training for final-year medical students.

In a notice issued last week, the National Medical Commission (NMC) allowed Indian students to opt for the academic mobility programme offered by Ukraine that allows them to relocate to universities in other countries and complete their studies. Students, however, say that such a transfer involved practical hurdles.

The course fee in other European countries is way higher than in Ukraine. Not everyone can afford it. The mobility programme was not really practical because universities in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, where the fee is relatively affordable, are not as good as those in Ukraine. Elsewhere in Europe, it is just too costly to start from scratch. Some Russian universities are now offering discounts for Indian students, said a returnee.

Students say that even the course duration, subjects and evaluation system in Ukraine was different from other countries so theres many a slip between cup and lip when it comes to the mobility programme. For instance, in Ukraine, the MBBS is called MD and it is a six-year course, unlike in India, where it is for five years. NMC has already clarified that our degrees wont be valid if we study via online classes. So theres no point wasting more time, said another student.

September 17th, 2022

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The Critical Moment Behind Ukraine’s Rapid Advance – The New York Times

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The Critical Moment Behind Ukraine's Rapid Advance - The New York Times

September 13th, 2022

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All eyes were on Balmoral but events in Ukraine may be just as historic for Britain – The Guardian

The most important news for Britain in the past week did not break at Balmoral. That isnt to deny that a royal succession is a big deal. As the crowds queueing for a glimpse of the deceased monarch attest, it is huge. But hugely symbolic.

Meanwhile, in a war 1,800 miles farther east there are events of greater consequence for citizens of this country than a new head under the crown and on the stamps. Of course our kingdom will be a bit different under Charles III. But the whole world will be different depending on whether it is Vladimir Putin or Volodymyr Zelenskiy who prevails in Ukraine.

Things are not looking so good for the Russian president. A counteroffensive has captured swathes of territory from Putins troops, who have fled in demoralised panic. It is far too early to say that the tide has turned decisively. Ukraines hold on the liberated territories is not secure. Russia avenges its humiliations on the ground by redoubling indiscriminate missile and artillery bombardment.

But Ukrainian spirits are lifted and the mood in Moscow, judging by recriminations sloshing around online, has soured.

The bitterness has even spilled out in state-controlled TV studios, where distressed pundits forget themselves and refer to setbacks in the war when the official Kremlin lexicon recognises only a special military operation.

Criticism of the war effort is mostly directed at commanders. Few dare to impugn Putin himself, although it happens. A group of municipal councillors from Moscow and St Petersburg have published an open letter calling on the president to resign for actions inflicting harm on the future of Russia and its citizens. Putin will not be moved by that sort of thing, except to new heights of vindictive rage.

Glimmers of dissent in Russia should not be mistaken for rays of a democratic dawn. Liberal opposition has been crushed or driven into exile. The most vocal complaints about the war come from bloodthirsty bloggers, frustrated that Putins aim of dissolving Ukrainian nationhood into a neo-Soviet Greater Russia has been bungled. They do not want to concede that the starting premise that Ukraine is a non-country wanting incorporation into the Slavic motherland but held hostage by a neo-Nazi junta is deranged.

Nor will they admit that Ukrainian soldiers have a motivational advantage, battling for their homes against disoriented Russian infantry who were told it would be a walk in the park and fight like cannon fodder. The preferred explanation for slow progress is that the true enemy is Nato. (And it is true that Ukraine has an edge from sophisticated western weaponry.) The ultra-nationalist response is to demand more mobilisation; an even more ferocious onslaught.

That is one reason why Ukrainians are wary of celebrating battlefield success prematurely. Putin can respond to failure with redoubled atrocity or by literally going nuclear. It is not hard to conjure apocalyptic scenarios, especially when Europes largest atomic power station is on the frontline.

Such are the grim dynamics of Russias descent into totalitarian paranoia that any hope of Putin being dislodged from power brings wariness of whatever might follow. There is no successor and no mechanism for naming one. The model is a hybrid of tsarist autocracy and mafia clannishness. Communist one-party rule in the Soviet era had at least some constitutional consistency before it unravelled completely.

That is not a reason to flinch from the task of ensuring the Kremlins defeat. Putin triumphant is a horrendous prospect. He is following a fascist playbook that contains no template for compromise and no limit to territorial aggression. Europe needs Putinism to be seen to fail.

President Zelenskiy expressed the options with rousing efficiency in a Telegram post over the weekend. Russia replied to Ukrainian advances with missile attacks on civilian energy infrastructure. Putin threatened to cut energy and food supplies to zero. But if going without gas, water, light or food was the price of going without Putin, so be it. Thus Zelenskiy wrote, addressing the Russian president: Cold, hunger, darkness and thirst are not as scary and deadly for us as what you call friendship and brotherhood. But history will set everything right. We will have gas, light, water and food. And all without you.

The choice is starkly existential for Ukraine but the shape of it is the same for the rest of us. Putins plan the part that has survived the catastrophic initial miscalculation of starting a war in the first place is to weaken western resolve by pulling the energy plug. He is praying that a cold winter will induce such violent shivers in British, French and German households that solidarity with Kyiv is shaken off.

He must be proved wrong. Putins vindication would demonstrate to the world that western democracies have neither the will nor the means to restrain murderous dictatorship on their doorstep. To fold under Kremlin pressure would be a strategic and moral calamity for Europe an entity that includes Britain even under a government that fetishises institutional detachment from its home continent.

UK support for Ukraine is currently a matter of cross-party consensus (queried only by the militant left faction that prefers whichever side in a conflict doesnt get its guns from the west).

But the weather is mild and doorsteps have not yet faced the full battery of brutal energy bills. That is why the events of the past few days matter so much. Seeing is believing, and belief in a free, sovereign Ukraine is bolstered by the sight of Putins forces humbled.

British eyes might be a bit too misty from all the maudlin monarchism to focus beyond Buckingham Palace, but the story being written right now in Kharkiv and Izium is our history, too.

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All eyes were on Balmoral but events in Ukraine may be just as historic for Britain - The Guardian

September 13th, 2022

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Ukraine recaptures nearly 400 square miles of territory; rebuilding Ukraine would cost estimated $349 billion – CNBC

Six vessels set to leave Ukraine carrying 96,181 metric tons of agricultural products

ISTANBUL, TURKIYE - AUGUST 09: An aerial view of "Glory" named empty grain ship as Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Turkiye and the United Nations (UN) of the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) conduct inspection on vessel in Istanbul, Turkiye on August 09, 2022. The UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed a deal on July 22 to reopen three Ukrainian ports -- Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny -- for grain that has been stuck for months because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which is now in its sixth month. (Photo by Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The organization overseeing the export of agricultural products from Ukraine said it has approved six vessels to leave the besieged country.

The Joint Coordination Center, an initiative of Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, said that the vessels are carrying a total of 96,181 metric tons of grain and other food products.

The ships are expected to depart Saturday and are destined for Spain, Italy, Greece, Libya and Turkey.

Amanda Macias

A Russian serviceman stands guard the territory outside the second reactor of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Energodar on May 1, 2022.

Andrey Borodulin | AFP | Getty Images

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said that the infrastructure that powers the city of Enerhodar has been destroyed due to shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

"Enerhodar has gone dark and we have seen that once infrastructure is repaired, it is damaged once again," International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement.

"This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious. This is completely unacceptable. It cannot stand," he said, adding that the city has no running water, power or sewage.

"I therefore urgently call for the immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area. Only this will ensure the security of operating staff and allow the durable restoration of power to Enerhodar and to the power plant," he said.

Earlier this month, Grossi lead a group of IAEA investigators to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Amanda Macias

EU lawmakers have repeatedly accused Russia of weaponizing energy exports to drive up commodity prices and sow uncertainty across the bloc. Moscow denies using energy as a weapon.

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

European Union nations struggled to find full consensus on ways to shield the population fromdramatically increasing energy pricesthat threaten to plunge millions into cold and poverty over the winter as Russia chokes off natural gas supplies.

As tensions with Moscow mount overthe war in Ukraine, the energy ministers of the EU's 27 nations could not paper over differences on whether and how to impose a price cap on Russian natural gas, with ever-recalcitrant Hungary refusing to agree, saying it would go against its supply interests.

Other countries differed on whether a price cap should apply only to Russia or to other producers, too.

An immediate solution on allproposals to bring natural gas and electricity prices back to affordabilityhad not been anticipated, but energy ministers gave general recommendations to the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, on options like instituting windfall levies on some energy companies whose profits have risen along with skyrocketing prices.

Associated Press

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, US President Joe Biden, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and France's President Emmanuel Macron pose for a G7 leaders' family photograph during a NATO summit at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels on March 24, 2022.

Michael Kappeler | AFP | Getty Images

Two months after they agreed to explore price limits on Russian oil sales, G-7 countries are still trying to recruit more countries to join their efforts before they enter more detailed discussions about the policy's specifics, according to U.S. and European officials.

"The coalition has to be broader, and this is the diplomatic phase [negotiators] are entering into," said one European official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.

They aim to restrict the amount of revenue the Kremlin receives, but keep Russian oil on the market to avoid supply disruptions.

Key importers of Russian oil China, India, and Turkey have not yet said whether they will join in the coordinated price cap or negotiate their own side deals with Russia. Their participation could determine how much leverage Western nations have to set prices.

"It's premature to start discussing the price before the coalition comes together," a senior Treasury official told CNBC.

Ukraines Astronomers Say There Are Tons of UFOs Over Kyiv – VICE

Motherboard explores UFOs, UFO culture, and the paranormal.

Ukraines airspace has been busy this yearthats the nature of war. But scientists in the country are looking to the skies and seeing something they didnt expect: An inordinate number of UFOs, according to a new preprint paper published by Kyivs Main Astronomical Observatory in coordination with the countrys National Academy of Science.

The paper does not specifically address the war, but in the United States, the Pentagon has long hinted, speculated, and warned that some UFOs could be advanced technology from foreign militaries, specifically China and Russia (though it hasnt really given any evidence this is actually the case). The Ukraine paper is particularly notable because it not only shows that science has continued to occur during the war, but also explains that there have been a lot of sightings.

We see them everywhere, the research said. We observe a significant number of objects whose nature is not clear.

The paper is titled Unidentified aerial phenomena I. Observations of events come from observations made at NAS Main Astronomical Observatory in Kyiv and a village south of Kyiv called Vinarivka. According to the papers authors, the observatories took on the job of hunting for UFOs as an independent project because of the enthusiasm around the subject.

It describes a specific type of UFO the researchers call phantoms that is an object [that] is a completely black body that does not emit and absorbs all the radiation falling on it. The researchers also observed that the UFOs its seeing are so fast that its hard to take pictures of them.

The eye does not fix phenomena lasting less than one-tenth of a second, the paper said. It takes four-tenths of a second to recognize an event. Ordinary photo and video recordings will also not capture the [unidentified aerial phenomenon]. To detect UAP, you need to fine-tune the equipment: shutter speed, frame rate, and dynamic range.

So the researchers did just that using two meteor monitoring stations in Kyiv and Vinarivka. We have developed a special observation technique, taking into account the high speeds of the observed objects, the paper said. The exposure time was chosen so that the image of the object did not shift significantly during exposure. The frame rate was chosen to take into account the speed of the object and the field of view of the camera. In practice, the exposure time was less than 1 ms, and the frame rate was no less than 50 Hz.

The scientists divided the phenomenon they observed into two different categories: cosmics and phantoms. We note that Cosmics are luminous objects, brighter than the background of the sky. We call these ships names of birds (swift, falcon, eagle), the paper said. Phantoms are dark objects, with contrast from several to about 50 percent.

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Using the cameras, stationed roughly 75 miles apart, allowed the scientists to make repeated observations of strange objects moving in the sky. The paper didnt speculate on what the objects were, merely noted the observations and mentioned the objects incredible speeds. Flights of single, group and squadrons of the ships were detected, moving at speeds from 3 to 15 degrees per second, the research said. Phantoms are observed in the troposphere at distances up to 10 - 12 km. We estimate their size from 3 to 12 meters and speeds up to 15 km/s.

The easy explanation would be that these are missiles, or rockets, or something else associated with the war. But the scientists insist that their nature is not clear.

UFOs are back in the public consciousness after a string of sightings were caught on camera by Navy pilots. Congress has demanded answers and the Pentagon responded by saying it has seen some strange stuff but needed more time and money to study the phenomenon appropriately. Congress gave them both and the Pentagon opened the AARO to study the strange objects in the sky. A recent addendum in a Senate intelligence budget report said that the threat of UFOs was increasing exponentially and that the Pentagons new office needed to focus on the UFOs that arent man-made.

Boris Zhilyaev, the lead researcher on the paper, declined to comment.

Update 9/13/22: The original version of this article stated that the Kyiv study was a joint venture with the Pentagon and NASA. It was not. VICE has corrected the story and regrets this error.

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Ukraines Astronomers Say There Are Tons of UFOs Over Kyiv - VICE

September 13th, 2022

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Mediaboss Marketing

Archive for the ‘Ukraine’ Category

Why and how Indian students are returning to Ukraine despite ongoing war – The Indian Express

The Critical Moment Behind Ukraine’s Rapid Advance – The New York Times

All eyes were on Balmoral but events in Ukraine may be just as historic for Britain – The Guardian

Ukraine recaptures nearly 400 square miles of territory; rebuilding Ukraine would cost estimated $349 billion – CNBC

Ukraines Astronomers Say There Are Tons of UFOs Over Kyiv – VICE

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