"My Hope Carried Me," Says 11-Year-Old Ukrainian Boy Who Fled alone to Slovakia
By Radovan Stoklasa
Bratislava, Slovakia
Hassan Al-Khalaf, 11, clung to hope when he trekked across Ukraine by himself, safely reaching Slovakia after joining the masses of refugees escaping Russia's invasion of their country.
Hassan arrived in Slovakia in early March, drawing wide media attention after local police posted his story on their Facebook page, calling him a "hero" after his long journey by train and on foot from Zaporizhzhie in southeast Ukraine.
"I got my hope from my mom wanting me to go," Hassan said in an interview before appearing as a guest at a pro-Ukraine demonstration in the Slovak capital in Bratislava on Friday.
"My hope carried me on my way," he said through an interpreter.
Hassan's widowed mother could not leave his grandmother at home, so she sent the boy off alone on the trip of over 1,000 km (620 miles) to Slovakia, where his older brother studies. He arrived with nothing but a plastic bag, passport and a phone number written on his hand.
"This brings tears to our eyes. This is the biggest hero of last night," Slovak police wrote on March 5 after Hassan appeared at the border crossing.
Hassan is one of more than 2.5 million refugees who have fled Ukraine, mostly to Poland, but also Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, to reach the European Union.
At least 176,000 have crossed Slovakia's border in an exodus that the United Nations has called the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.
"I want to say a big thank you to the volunteers, because they are helping people they don't even know," said Hassan, who is hopeful of seeing his mother again.
"I believe that there will be a happy end." - Reuters
CBS News adds: An 11-year-old Ukrainian boy has been hailed as a hero after fleeing his war-torn country by himself — with only a plastic bag, a passport and a telephone number written on his hand. The boy, Hassan, traveled roughly 620 miles by train from Zaporizhzhia, the site of Europe's largest nuclear power plant, to Slovakia to meet relatives, according to Slovak officials.
The power plant was taken over by Russian forces last week after a battle during which shelling led to a fire at a training facility. Although none of the reactors were damaged, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the attack could have caused destruction on a scale far bigger than the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
In a video posted on Facebook , the boy's mother said she is a widow and explained that she was unable to leave Zaporizhzhia because she had to stay with her sick mother, who cannot move on her own.
"I am very grateful that they saved the life of my child," Yulia Pisetskaya said Sunday. "In your small country, there are people with big hearts ... Please save our Ukrainian children and give them a safe haven," she added.
Once Hassan safely crossed over the border, volunteers and Slovak authorities "kept him warm and provided him with food and water, which they packed for his next trip," Slovakia's interior minister, Roman Mikulec, said on Facebook. Authorities used the telephone number written on the boy's hand to contact his relatives, and they were reunited.
Pisetskaya thanked Slovak authorities for helping her son, as well as customs officers at the border who "took him by the hand and helped him cross the border in Slovakia."
"Little Hassan is only 11 years old, but in his way he has shown huge determination, courage and fearlessness that sometimes adults don't have," Mikulec wrote on Facebook after meeting the boy on Monday. "I am really very sorry for him and all the other children and their families who have to flee their country because of what is happening in Ukraine."
More than 2 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of Russia's invasion of the country, according to the United Nations. Hundreds of thousands are children .
"He won everybody's heart with his smile, fearlessness and determination worthy of a real hero," the Slovakian Interior Ministry said on Facebook.
