Ukrainian woman, Nataliya Ableyeva, crossed the border from Ukraine into Hungary, bringing with her a stranger's children to reunite with their mom on February 26.
Ableyeva met the father, a desperate 38-year-old man from her hometown of Kamianets-Podilskyi, with his young son and daughter. Border guards would not let him leave the country, prompting the man to leave his kids with Ableyeva so they could cross the border and reunite with their mother, Local12 reported.
Handing precious cargoes
Despite being a stranger, Ableyeva, 58, said that the father handed the two kids and their passports to her and asked for her help to accompany them in crossing the border to get to Hungary, where they will reunite with their mother.
The father told her that the children's mother was on her way from Italy to meet the kids and keep them safe. He then gave Ableyeva the mother's mobile number and said goodbye to his children. The kids were wrapped up against the cold in thick jackets and hats.
She said she took the two small children by the hand, and they crossed the border together.
When they arrived at Beregsurany, they waited while sitting on a bench near a tent set up for the refugees. She said that the little boy started to cry at one point until his mobile phone rang. The call was from the mother telling him that she was near the border post.
A tearful reunion with the mother
The children's mother, 33-year-old Anna Semyuk, soon arrived, and they immediately hugged her son and daughter, who were lying exhausted in the back of a car wrapped in a pink blanket. The young mom then thanked Ableyeva, who said they embraced for several minutes, crying.
Semyuk told Ableyeva that she could now assure her kids that things would be alright. "In one or two weeks, we will go home," she also told Ableyeva.
Ableyeva is also a mom of two grown-up children. One of her children is a policeman, and the other is a nurse. Neither could leave Ukraine due to the mobilization degree.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the general mobilization of the population decree as Russia invaded Ukraine. As per the decree, Ukrainian men aged 18-60 could not leave the country as conscripts and reservists will be called in the next 90 days to defend the state.
Meanwhile, UN officials said that as many as four million Ukrainians could move out of the country as refugees due to the Russian invasion.
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