Sasha Zdanovych: Boy, 4, ‘lost in Ukraine war zone’ after grandmother dies in boat tragedy

The boy was escaping with his grandmother and six others on a boat which capsized

A four-year-old boy is missing after the boat that he was traveling in with his grandmother in fleeing Russian troops in war-torn Ukraine capsized.

Anna Yakhno, 25, said that her son Sasha Zdanovych was wearing a life jacket and has been missing since 10 March.

“We believe in a miracle and wait for any useful information,” Ms Yakhno was quoted as saying to The Evening Standard.

She added that she is hoping that he is in hiding in one of the villages that have been cut off due to the movement of the Russian troops.

“There are the villages of Tolokun and Sukholuchye nearby, but people there have no electricity and communications for about a week.”

Ms Yakhno said that there were eight people on the boat including her son and mother-in-law. Six people including her son are still missing.

“My mother-in-law was found, another woman who was with them was discovered the next day. They were both dead.”

“None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for the war. It was the Russian troops who caused it,” she said.

Ms Yakhno said that her son was staying with his grandparents in Vyshgorod district when the Russian invasion started on 24 February.

In almost a month’s operations, Russian troops movement in the Ukraine has forced over 2.5 million people to leave their homes and flee the war according to the United Nations.

On Wednesday, the United Nations Children’s Fund said that nearly 1.5 million children have fled Ukraine since the Russian incursion as almost one child per second has become a refugee.

“They were in a small village with only two shops and two days after the start of the invasion all the food was gone,” Ms Yakhno said.

“The longer they stayed there, the worse it got with supplies and electricity.”

Eventually they decided to leave the village by escaping on boats as the roads had been blocked.

Earlier they had attempted to rescue them by attempting to travel by road but had to turn back due to shelling.

The boat ventured across Kyiv reservoir [on the Dnieper, also known as the Kyiv Sea] and was also carrying a Ukrainian special troops officer had been and a rescuer, Ms Yakhno said.

With no news of her son, Ms Yakhno is struggling to sleep and said that she is “shattered.”

“I am holding on because there is still hope.”The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.