Four Jordanians injured in Ukraine brawl

AMMAN — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate Affairs is following up on the case of four Jordanian students injured in Ukraine, three of whom are in critical condition, officials said on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told reporters on Saturday evening that the ministry set up an operations room to monitor the situation around-the-clock, while two Jordanian cultural attachés are following up on the issue.

“Three of them are in critical condition… We are following up on their health situation to see if they can be transported to Jordan,” the minister said, adding that this is a priority for the government. 

“We are looking into their health condition and the availability of a [plane] equipped with the needed medics,” Judeh explained, adding that Jordanian authorities are in contact with the Ukrainian authorities regarding the investigations and the reasons behind the assault on the Jordanian students.

The medical students were injured Thursday night when a group attacked a housing complex they were staying at in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.

In a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, on Friday, the ministry said an official from Jordan’s cultural attaché office in Ukraine visited the students in hospital. 

Spokesperson Sabah Al Rafei said the ministry is also in contact with the students’ families and with Jordan’s cultural attaché in Ukraine and its embassy in Moscow.

“All options to ensure proper medical care for the injured students are under study,” she told The Jordan Times over the phone.

According to local news websites, the four students are brothers Mohammad and Malik Matarneh, Amir Halalmeh and Odai Rawashdeh.

Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported that the Jordanian students were injured during “a mass brawl on a university campus area”, and that three of them underwent surgery.

One of the wounded Jordanians has an open head injury, while the others have stab wounds, according to UNIAN, and all four are in intensive care.

Citing the Ukrainian interior ministry, the agency said nine people were injured in the attack. Six people were hospitalised, including the Jordanians.

Around 3,500 Jordanians study at Ukrainian universities.

In February, a Jordanian student died in Ukraine, and a source familiar with the case said he was killed in a fight with two Ukrainians.

Last year, another Jordanian was found dead in Donetsk, Ukraine, with no details about the case until now.