Kiev, Europe Brief News – Ukrainian kid, Hassan, 11, reached Slovakia after travelling some 1,200 km (750 miles) from eastern Ukraine by himself.
With no more than two small bags, a passport and his relatives’ phone number, Hassan fled the war in Ukraine and arrived in safety in Slovakia.
Hassan’s mother was not able to travel with him, as she could not leave her elderly mother.
She put him on a train. When he finally got to the border, customs officers helped him to cross the borders.
Officials said he was a true hero and had won over everyone with his smile.
The boy arrived at the border carrying a plastic bag, a small red backpack and his passport. He was taken in by volunteers who gave him food and a drink while border officials got in touch with relatives in the Slovak capital Bratislava.
His mother, in a video posted by Slovak police, thanked everyone for taking care of her son. She explained why he had travelled across the country when it was in the grip of a Russian invasion.
“Next to my town is a power plant that the Russians are shelling. I couldn’t leave my mum. She can’t move by herself – so I sent my son to Slovakia,” said Julia Pisecka, who is a widow.
The nuclear power station at Zaporizhzhia is the biggest in Europe. It was seized by Russia’s military over the weekend after an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky warned could have caused destruction on a scale far bigger than the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Hassan is one of more than two million people who have fled Russia’s war in Ukraine. More than 1.2 million have arrived in Poland, while 140,745 have reached Slovakia, according to the latest UN figures.
