The Boy Who Fled Ukraine With Only A Phone Number On His Hand Was Reunited With His Mom
Their whole family is back together 😭😭😭
Ukrainian boy reunited with his mom.
The heroic Ukrainian boy who crossed the country to escape the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this month has finally been reunited with his mother, thanks to police in Slovakia and a phone number written on his hand.
Little Hassan, 11, made an incredible solo trip from the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia into Slovakia during the Russian invasion, after his mom made a heartbreaking choice to send him out of the war zone on his own.
Hassan's mom, who is a widow, decided to stay behind to help her immobile mother at the time, and she was so relieved when he made it to Slovakia in early March.
"My hope carried me," the boy said after he arrived safe, according to Reuters.
Now Hassan's mom and grandmother have both been reunited with Hassan and his siblings, according to Slovakian police who helped make it happen.
"Hassan's mom and grandma are safe," they wrote, in a post that includes several emotional photos of the reunion.
Experiencing one war is enough for any individual for a lifetime, but for Hassan, this is his second time fleeing an active war zone.
Police said that Hassan's family fled Syria years ago, but his father "didn't make it" out of that conflict.
The family eventually moved to Hassan's mother's homeland in Ukraine and settled down,.
Then Russia attacked, and they became refugees again.
According to police, Hassan's mom wrote his brother's phone number on his hand, and then put him on a train to Slovakia to get him out of the country.
Meanwhile, his older brother and three older sisters were waiting for him to show up in Slovakia, where the elder siblings were all going to school.
Finally, their mom decided to leave Ukraine, too.
"The threat of Russian bombing convinced the mother to at least try to escape with her grandmother. They also took their little dog," police said.
After a long and strenuous journey, Hassan's mother and grandmother crossed the border on Monday and were eventually reunited with Hassan and the rest of his siblings.
"They lost everything again, but this time the war didn't take anyone away from them," police wrote.
"They are together, and that's all that matters."