11-Year-Old Crosses Ukrainian Border All Alone With Phone Number Written On His Hand

An 11-year-old boy from Ukraine traveled all alone for more than 600 miles in train before crossing the border to Slovakia, authorities in Slovakia said. The young child who bravely crossed the Ukrainian border amid the tense war is now hailed a hero for his "fearlessness and determination."

The unidentified boy from Zaporizhzhia, southeast Ukraine, was sent to his relative's home in Slovakia as a refugee. The young boy just had a plastic bag, passport and phone number written on his hand.

"He came completely alone because his parents had to stay in Ukraine," the Slovak Ministry of Interior said in a Facebook post, Saturday, although it is unclear why the parents could not travel with the child, CNN reported.

The Slovak Ministry described the young boy as "the biggest hero of last night" for his incredible courage and said the child has won the hearts of the officials with the smile he had even after undertaking the high-risk journey.

The staff at the Slovak border took care of the boy and provided him with food and warm shelter before contacting his relatives in the Slovak's capital city of Bratislava. The boy's relatives were able to come and collect the child, thanks to the phone number written on his hand, the officials said.

Meanwhile, the child's mother sent a video message thanking the government of Slovakia and the border staff for taking care of her son. "In your small country, there are people with big hearts," the child's mother, identified as Yulia Pisetskaya, said in a video message on Facebook Sunday, New Straits Times reported. "I am very grateful that they saved the life of my child," the mother added.

According to the U.N reports, the number of refugees crossing the Ukrainian borders to neighboring countries like Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Moldova has reached 1.5 million in the last 10 days.

These migrants are mostly women and children as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has prohibited men aged between 18-60 from leaving the country, requesting them to stay on and fight for the country. Meanwhile, Poland has accepted the highest number of refugees followed by other countries like Hungary, Moldova, and Slovakia.