Several Jamaican students in Ukraine relocate to bomb shelter

Kimone Francis, Senior Staff Reporter

Several of the Jamaican students who remain in Ukraine as Russian forces invade the Eastern European country have left their homes and are now in a bomb shelter.

A student, one of several who The Gleaner has been in contact with in recent weeks, confirmed this morning that the Jamaicans have formed a buddy system and have banded together in clusters amid expectations of airstrikes in their cities.

The students were pursuing medical studies in Kharkiv, Ukraine's capital Kyiv, Dnipro, and Ternopil when geopolitical tension heightened between Russia and Ukraine.

“We have created buddy systems. So students who live in a particular area have grouped up and some of them have moved to one of the bomb shelters,” the student, who asked not to be identified, said.

He said the situation in Ukraine has worsened since he awoke to sounds of loud explosions around 4:00 am Thursday, as weeks of silent fears turned into reality.

He and several other students have had their flights cancelled when Ukrainian authorities ordered the country's airspace closed as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy introduced martial law and urged people to remain calm.

“I was more frantic when I woke up but I'm more level-headed now. Trying to think of routes of safety,” he told The Gleaner.

Early Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he had ordered military action in Ukraine, confronting the former satellite state of the then Soviet Union with the terrifying force of an onslaught that has reportedly killed dozens so far.

Russian troops are said to have landed in the city of Odessa, crossing the border in the city of Kharkiv.

“Things are getting worse,” said the student.

He said he was among scores of people attempting to get money from an ATM but was unable to do so as a second round of bombing began.

“People are there in the machine for like 10 minutes trying to get money. So after the second dose of bombing started I had to come home,” he said as long lines stretched for metres at gas stations and supermarkets.

“I am good, bad, [and] nervous. It's a whole mixture of everything. You're here, it's now calm and quiet but then two, three hours down the line you hear things going off again.”

Russia and Ukraine have had conflict since 2014 when Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula. 

For weeks, Putin had amassed troops on the border of Ukraine.

This is as a result of Ukraine's interest in joining NATO, a security alliance, and the European Union, which Putin views as NATO encroaching on Russia's borders.

This is seen as a security risk. 

The US and its allies are set to announce further sanctions against Russia after President Joe Biden called Moscow's actions “an unprovoked and unjustified attack”.

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