New Delhi: Wars often throw up unlikely heroes amid deaths and devastation.
The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has the adventurous story of 11-year-old Ukrainian boy, who travelled 1,000 km all alone to Slovakia escaping the situation back home.
He left home in Zaporizhzhia in southeast Ukraine with a backpack, his mother's note and a telephone number scribbled on it.
Zaporizhzhia saw heavy attack last week leading to Russian forces capturing a power plant. His parents wouldn't accompany him as they had to take care of an ailing relative even as Russian rained in fire.
The boy's mother sent him to Slovakia by train to find his relatives. He had a plastic bag, a passport and a message in a folded note.
With a piece of paper clutching in his hand alongside a passport the boy arrived in Slovakia to the notice of the border officials. They were able to contact his relatives in the in the capital, Bratislava, and hand him over.
The boy won over the officials "with his smile, fearlessness and determination, worthy of a true hero", the Slovakian Interior Ministry said in a Facebook post calling him "The Biggest Hero of Last night".
Later, the boy's mother in a message to Slovak government thanked the police for taking care of him. The Slovakian Interior Ministry on Facebook praised the boy's "fearlessness and determination".
"The volunteers took care of him willingly, took him to a warm place and provided him with food and drinks, which they packed for him on his next journey," reports said.
"Thanks to the number on the hand and a piece of paper in the waist, I managed to contact relatives who came for him later and the whole story ended well," Slovakian ministry official said.