Illia was just 9 years old when a missile strike on Mariupol took his mother's life. In the chaos that followed, Russian soldiers took him to Donetsk, cutting him off from all communication with his family. He was told he would be placed in a new family in Russia. But fate intervened. A distant relative saw Illia on Russian television and recognized his face. Within days, his grandmother began a desperate journey across four borders. When she finally reached Donetsk, she found him in a hospital and refused to leave without him.