'Painful to see Kyiv burning'

For 35yearold Rajesh Munishwar a space and defence engineer hailing from Maharashtras Nagpur and settled in Kyiv for the last 17 years it is a painful experience to see his city get devastated by the Russian forcesMunishwar who has managed to flee Kyiv with his wife and eightyearold son and cross over to Ukraines neighbouring country Romania said Kyiv has been surrounded by the Russian forces from all sides and several buildings including key establishments have fallen prey to heavy bombingTalking to PTI over phone from Romania on Wednesday morning Munishwar who runs a missile designing company in Kyiv said he and his family members are part of a group of 18 Indians who arranged vehicles for themselves and crossed over into the neighbouring countriesKyiv is surrounded by the Russian forces from all sides Northwest and northeast of Kyiv is occupied Intense fighting is going on between the forces on streets and buildings in Kyiv The devastation is huge Yesterday 64kmlong convoy of Russian forces headed towards Kyiv Russians told the local people to vacate the city as they planned to make heavy bombing in Kyiv he saidAt Labanovska Street 200 metres away from our home a cruise missile hit a building and its ninth and tenth floor were completely destroyed The road from our home to University of Defence is totally barricaded Heavy firing between the natives and invasion forces is going on he addedFacetoface firing between the two sides on the streets has become quite normal in Kyiv Munishwar saidIn Ukraine there is a curfew from 5 pm to 7 am he said adding that Kharkiv citys freedom square central administrative building were heavily bombardedYesterday they used thermobaric vacuum bomb Famous tractor factory XTZ was bombarded The destruction was enormous In Kyiv television tower got destroyed after it was bombed yesterday It was a painful experience to see your city is burning he said with a heavy heartTwo days back worlds largest aircraft An225 Mriya was destroyed It was designed and built in Ukraine There is heavy shelling and destruction in Kyiv and almost in all major cities and towns he saidThe Indian Embassy had asked us yesterday to vacate Kyiv urgently and escape by any means We went to the railway station on foot but saw a huge rush there It was not possible to take any train as locals natives were given the preference For people from other countries boarding a train is next to impossible he saidWe are 18 Indians who arranged small vans and buses and crossed over into the neighboring countries Me my wife and child reached Romania yesterday late night and are staying in base camp We are expected to board a flight to India today he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever