Brave Ukrainian boy who fled Russian invasion is finally reunited with his hero father

Exclusive:

Father Ruslan Gladkiy stayed in Ukraine to help his country during the war while his wife, son and daughter boarded a train to safety. The family is now reunited

The young Ukrainian boy, whose emotional farewell to his hero father became one of the iconic images of the country’s suffering at the hands of the Russian invasion, is finally reunited with him after returning home.

Father Ruslan Gladkiy, 35, had feared he would never see his wife, son and daughter again as he escorted them to safety on a train in February.

Driver Ruslan, who stayed behind to help his country fight Moscow’s rampaging troops, was photographed kissing nine-year-old Hordiy goodbye at the Lviv train station and telling him: “Be brave for your mother.”

The photo was used on the front page of the Daily Mirror and beamed around the world.

Young Hordiy was certainly brave – and now, three months later, he was finally able to hug his father again as the family returned to Ruslan despite the ongoing war.

Ruslan told the Mirror: “I was so happy to see my family again. We haven’t seen each other for three months. Of course we were able to video call, but seeing and holding my wife and children was fantastic. We love our country and want to live here in happiness and peace.”

As soon as the Russian army invaded, Ruslan decided he had to get his family out of the country.

He took them to the train station in Lviv and, despite the chaotic scenes, managed to secure tickets to Budapest for his wife Halyna, 37, Hordiy and four-year-old daughter Emilia. They eventually ended up in Italy, where they stayed with relatives. But now, despite the possible dangers, they have returned.

They are among hundreds of families making the bold decision to come home to rejoin their husbands and fathers, who are being forced to remain under the travel ban for men between the ages of 18 and 60 as the war rages on.

It means there has been an influx of people on trains to the capital Kyiv and all cities in the west of the country.

I can remember standing in front of the Lviv train station on Sunday, February 27th, watching the poignant scenes as hundreds of families said goodbye.

But while three months ago there were massive three-day queues to disembark, there are now queues at many border crossings to enter war-torn Ukraine.

Ruslan said: “We are not safe here yet. Sometimes rockets still fly into our area.

“More and more of our friends and acquaintances are going to the front.

“And if the enemy gets past our defenses, my wife and children will be forced to flee, and I will stay again. It’s scary to go through again. But we wanted to be together.”

In Slovakia, Moldova, Hungary and Poland there are Ukrainians who absolutely want to return.

In the Polish farming village of Medyka, Ukrainians have been waiting for hours to cross the border again.

One of them, Kiev university graduate Anna Kobernyk, said: “We have been waiting here all night and we are all very tired.”

She has a master’s degree in International Relations and the war has given her a practical lesson in the subject in recent months.

She added: “It’s my practical lesson. It’s sad, of course, that the 21st century is actually not that fantastic. That the UN and many, many others can do nothing.”

Ruslan said that if the situation in his region remains relatively calm, he will try to watch his national team take on Scotland in next week’s World Cup play-off alongside Hordiy and his family.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has admitted that Russian despot Vladimir Putin is making headway in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.

The prime minister said: “I fear that Putin will continue destroying soil in Donbass at great cost to himself and the Russian military. He continues to make gradual, slow, but I fear noticeable progress, and that is why it is absolutely necessary that we continue to provide military support to the Ukrainians.” Ukraine needs more military support, including multi-launch missile systems, he added.

More than 30 leading legal scholars and genocide experts have signed a report accusing the Russian state of violating several articles of the UN Genocide Convention.

The report warns of a serious and imminent risk of genocide in Ukraine. It listed evidence including examples of mass killings of civilians, forced deportations, and dehumanizing language used by senior Russian officials to describe Ukrainians, including words like “bestial,” “subordinate,” and “filth.”

The dossier from the US-based think tank New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy also cites Putin’s comments that he believes Ukraine has no right to exist as an independent state.