Maldivian Students In Ukraine Worried About Govt Inaction

Maldivian students residing in Ukraine have expressed their fears about the Maldivian government's inaction and apparent lack of concern regarding their wellbeing as the country faces threat of a Russian military invasion.

Maldivian students residing in Khariv, Ukraine released a statement which read that they had been very worried from the beginning because Ukrainian airspace and borders would close in case of a Russian invasion. "We are the closest city to the Russian border", read the statement. "Any invasion would affect us first".

The statement read that since day one, none of the official Maldivian government authorities had contacted them regarding the worsening situation in Ukraine. The statement read that they had to find the contacts of the closest Maldivian embassy to Ukraine on their own; the Maldivian embassy in Berlin, Germany. They created a group upon request of embassy officials so that they could respond to questions and so that the embassy could contact the students in case of emergency. The embassy did not respond on that group, said the statement, except on the third day when the students sent screenshots about the escalating situation in Ukraine. The only response they had received was that the Maldivian government was "monitoring the situation in Ukraine as developments unfold".

"Since then, they sent us a Google form to fill in all the emergency contacts of all the students", read the statement. "And that was the last we heard of from them".

"Nobody has asked us if we are facing any difficulties living here, nobody has asked us about any decisions about our university, and nobody has asked us if we can even afford to go back on our own as the prices of the tickets have sky rocketed to 2500$ within less than 24 hours", read the statement.

"What is disappointing is that they are giving false statements about how they have been handling the situation", read the statement.

"It is embarassing that we have to run after our government to help us get out of this country while we are so less in number while other countries who has students over 4000+ were asked to laeve them to evacuate without the students even asking for their help".

Some of the parents of students residing in Ukraine have gone to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to petition the government to help evacuate the students.

The Maldivian government issued a statement restricting Maldivian nationals from travelling to Ukraine given the imminence of war. The government also called on Maldivians residing in Ukraine to pay attention to goverment announcements and to "take safety measures".