These exhausted children are some of the 52 orphans evacuated from war-torn Ukraine with the help of Sunday Mirror readers.
You raised an amazing £50,000 last week - £25,000 of it on Sunday alone - which went towards rescuing these children from their orphanage in Dnipro as Russian bombs rained down.
Today they are recovering from their gruelling two day ordeal to escape Russian invaders in the safety of lasi, Romania .
The plan by charity Hope and Homes for Children is to keep them as near to their home country as possible so they can be reunited with extended family who survive.
In the meantime they will be carefully tracked and placed with families in Romania so they cannot fall into the hands of traffickers.
These children aged from six months to 12 years left Dnipro in eastern Ukraine by train at 8.30 on Wednesday night to make the hazardous journey towards the Romanian border and sanctuary.
The 52, including seven babies, and 11 carers, charity workers and their families, arrived at Vynnytsk, south of Lviv at midnight Thursday, a three hour bus ride from the border where they had to disembark.
Other refugee families helped them cross on foot into Romania and the Blue Dot UN processing centre and then it was another ten hours drive before they reached lasi by coach.
Hope and Homes for Children is dedicated to ending orphanages worldwide so children are placed in loving families instead of institutions.
The charity’s Wayne Cornish said: “We are not a humanitarian emergency response agency, But today we are humanitarians, responding to an emergency.”
And the charitity’s country director Halyna who has remained in Kyiv added: “It was a long and emotional journey, but the children coped unbelievably well, and are now safe, and receiving psychological support.
“We are ensuring they are not lost into far away institutions around the world. They are relocated with their care-givers - the ones who know their individual needs, treatments or simply their preferences”.
Sunday Mirror readers gave generously to our orphan appeal backed by Labour leader Keir Starmer after we featured children cowering in the basement of a baby home in Kyiv last week. No one now knows what has become of them.
Charity patron General Lord Dannatt, former chief of the defence staff said: “It is brilliant the Sunday Mirror launched this appeal to help these children.
“Readers of the Sunday Mirror have been incredibly generous. I hope this continues so that Hope and Homes for Children can keep helping the hidden victims of this war.”
And charity boss Mark Waddington added: “The generosity of readers has been incredible.
“The speed at which donations were made has enabled us to evacuate children from grievous danger and place them in safe care.
“And we have done this without cutting ties with their communities and families, so that the hope of returning home when it is safe remains alive and well.
“We have also been able to provide emergency relief – food, blankets and mattresses – to some of the most vulnerable families facing the most distressing circumstances.”
Ukraine has 100,000 orphans, the highest number in Europe, who lived in 700 state-run orphanages before the war because parents were unable to care for them.
And they were abandoned again as many of the 60,000 staff who once looked after them left to be with their own families.
Hope and Homes also rescued another 50 children from Vorzel near the capital who were bussed away when their orphanage was hit by an illegal Russian cluster bomb. They escaped without casualties.
The Dnipro children sheltered in a community centre for seven days, but were moved again when that became unsafe. But nowhere is safe in Dnipro as the fighting intensifies.
The city has become a key strategic target as it controls vital crossing points over the Dnieper river.
So the decision was taken to make the dangerous dash for the border.
- To donate to our appeal go to www.hopeandhomes.org or text HOPE 5, HOPE 10, HOPE 15 or HOPE 20 to 70300 to give £5, £10, £15 or £20 to Hope and Homes for Children. Your money will go towards rescuing more orphans, and providing much needed food, water, bedding and medical supplies.
