Ukrainian boy, 11, who travelled 700 miles alone to Slovakia says he is happy to be safe
Hassan was forced to leave his hometown of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, and travel across country
A Ukrainian boy who made a 700-mile journey across Ukraine and into Slovakia has said he “is happy” to be safe from the conflict.
Hassan, with a telephone number scribbled on his hand, a passport, and a plastic bag, travelled hundreds of miles by train as Russian president Vladimir’s Putin’s forces bombarded major cities with air strikes.
The 11-year-old was forced to leave his mother Yulia Pisetskaya, a widow, in their hometown of Zaporizhzhia, as she had to continue to continue looking after her elderly mother who is not able to leave.
Hassan’s arrival at the Slovakian border after his lengthy journey has been one of the few bright spots in a conflict that has rapidly escalated since Russian military forces entered the country more than two weeks ago.
When the young man got to Slovakia he was given food and water by volunteers and then his family was contacted using the number on his hand and his was reunited with them in Bratislava, the nation’s capital.
Today, in an interview via video link played on Good Morning Britain, Hassan could be seen reunited with his four older siblings, safe from the conflict.
His older sister said, translating Hassan’s words, said: “He says the most important is to be in the place where he has family.
“He likes this city because it’s safe. He doesn’t know about the future because he doesn’t know about the situation in Ukraine. He is not thinking about the future, he just wants to be with us.”
When he was asked the worst part of his journey, Hassan explained that the packed trains of people talking in languages he didn’t understand was the “scariest”.
His sister, translating his words, said: “The train was very, very full, there were 300 people in one carriage.”
“The kids and the people were sitting in the hall and everyone was talking in foreign languages and he wasn’t understanding so that was the scariest [part of the journey] for him.”
Hassan’s mother Ms Pisetskaya, who is still in Ukraine, has thanked the Slovakian authorities for taking in her young son and saving his life.
In a translation of her comments posted by Slovakia’s embassy in London on Facebook, she said: “I want to thank the Slovak customs and volunteers who took care of my son and helped him cross the border.
“I am grateful you have saved my child’s life. Next to my town is a nuclear power plant that the Russians are shooting at. I couldn’t leave my mother – she can’t move on her own.”
It is not the first time Hassan has had to flee conflict in a country - he was only a baby when his family had to leave Syria for Ukraine due to the ongoing civil war.
His older sister Luna, told The Washington Post: “He was very small and doesn’t remember. I was glad for it and I hoped he would never see such war.”
The UN said on Friday that more than 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine and a further 2 million have been driven from their homes within the country since the start of a conflict.
The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.
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