A university in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk is holding early exams for its foreign students after coming under pressure from the embassies of several countries that want their subjects to return home from the restive region.
Ukrainian students at the Taras Shevchenko National University in Luhansk have been sent on vacation until May 19 to help examiners fit all exams for foreign final year students into this week, the university said in an .
One of the university's deputy rectors, Serhii Savchenko, said that the rush to finish the exams early was prompted by parents who became anxious after watching Russian media reports about the region, where government forces continue to clash with pro-Russian separatists.
"The parents are worried, it's a foreign country for them, and most of them are watching Russian television, which puts a completely different spin on events," Savchenko told Ukraine's on Wednesday. "This worries them, they call the embassy, the embassy calls us, and we react accordingly."
Sarturbek Saifutdinov, a student from Uzbekistan, backed Savchenko's assessment and said that he was not afraid for his own safety.
Our parents "have no Ukrainian [newscasts], only Russian television channels. They watch it and they panic — their kids are in that place. They want us to come back soon, they call, so that's why we are leaving," he told TSN.
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