There were joyous scenes at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James late yesterday (March 2) as 20 Jamaican students finally concluded their harrowing journey from war-torn Ukraine.

They arrived on a flight from Germany, where they had travelled to after crossing from Ukraine into Poland.

The students, whose journey had been followed by the country since the Russian military invaded Ukraine last week, had faced the torturous experience of a 20km walk to Ukraine’s border with Poland in the freezing cold this past weekend.

During that journey, two students fell ill with one having to be treated in an ambulance.

That student, Rhonda-Kaye Throught, speaking on arriving in Jamaica, recalled what she called “a very scary experience”.

“We didn’t know what would happen… it was very scary. Bombs were dropping, you could just see fumes, you just hear noises, persons screaming and a stampede. We are just happy we are home,” she said as she spoke with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.

In a video update on social media earlier in the day, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, said all other students were out of Ukraine as well, including four others who also took the 20km trek.