European Union agrees to start considering applications from Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova to join the bloc

Hungary has offered foreign students whose studies were interrupted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the chance to continue their education at Hungarian universities, authorities said.

“Hungary offers foreign students who have escaped #UkraineRussianWar (India, Nigeria, other African countries) to continue their studies in Hungarian universities”, tweeted Dr. Attila DemkóDirector of the Hungarian Center for Geopolitics.

“All third country refugees (mostly Africans) were accepted without problems and repatriated if they wished,” Demkó added in his Sunday tweet.

Some Nigerian evacuees from Ukraine have said they are relieved to be back home even though they anticipate a return to the Eastern European country which is currently fending off Russian troops.

“I am happy to be safe but I am sad that my studies have been interrupted,” said Oru Dominic Gabriel, 27, who was one of many Nigerians evacuated from Romania on Friday, where they had fled to escape. the war in Ukraine.

According to the government agency Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), more than 400 Nigerian citizens fleeing war in Ukraine were repatriated over the weekend on flights chartered by the Nigerian government.

The first group of returnees arrival in the capital Abuja early Friday from Romania, according to NIDCOM. the second batch evacuees arrived from Poland later on Friday, while third batch landed in Abuja around midnight Friday from Hungary, NIDCOM said in a series of tweets.

The returnees received a $100 stipend from Foreign Ministry officials upon arrival in Abuja, Gabriel told CNN on Monday. He was in the last year of his medical studies at the Ternopil National Medical University in Ukraine.

He told CNN of his intention to return to the war-torn country.

“I would go back [to Ukraine] to complete my studies. I was only two months away from finishing my classes. Ukraine is my home,” Gabriel said.

Adetomiwa Adeniyi, another returnee and a final-year medical student at Ternopil University, told CNN that returning to Ukraine was the hope of many returnees.

“For most of us, Ukraine is our home,” Adeniyi, 24, told CNN.

However, he is considering study opportunities elsewhere given the uncertainty of the war in Ukraine.

“I am still looking for transfer alternatives both home and abroad. I only had four months left to complete my studies and find a place with the same tuition bracket [as Ukraine] is almost impossible. Even private universities here [in Nigeria] are more expensive,” Adeniyi said. “The war is always protracted, not to mention the fallout period for reconstruction… So it’s a whole basket of uncertainty, but at least we’re alive.”

Hundreds of international students, many of them Nigerians, remain trapped in their hostels in Sumy, northeastern Ukraine, surrounded by Russian troops and amid explosions and gunfire.

Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama told CNN on Thursday that his office was aware of the fate of the stranded students and that arrangements were being made for their evacuation.

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