Ukraine conflict: Boy with leukaemia flees to Ireland

A five-year-old boy with leukaemia who fled Ukraine is being medically assessed in the Republic of Ireland.

Leonid Shapoval and his family are staying with relatives in west Cork ahead of restarting his treatment, Irish broadcaster RTÉ has reported.

He was due to have his final chemotherapy treatment and was just days from a bone marrow transplant when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Last week, his doctors urged the family to leave.

Leonid's doctors told the family there was no way he would get further treatment, his great aunt Victoria Walden said.

They have since learned the Kyiv hospital where he was being treated has been bombed.

She told RTÉ: "The doctor gave Yana [Leonid's mother] all Leonid's documents and said, 'Run, just run. There is no way he is going to get any more treatment. We have to send him home. Because of war, we don't know what's going to happen'."

They drove straight to the Poland/Ukraine border.

"It took them 30 hours to drive there and when they got there, there was 20km of a queue of cars. But luckily the police were very kind to them once they found out the condition Leonid was in," Ms Walden said.

"They put on the sirens and they took them 20km to skip the queue."

Leonid was diagnosed with leukaemia last July, and a bone marrow transplant had been planned for next week.

The family arrived in Dublin on Monday.

They hope he will undergo his last round of chemotherapy here, before getting his bone marrow transplant.

"He needs to be in hospital as soon as possible - that is what he needs," Ms Walden said.

"I hope he gets cured and lives a very happy, long life - that is what I want for him, because he is such a wonderful little boy."

Leonid's mother Yana Shapoval told RTÉ: "Leonid is very kind and very active. He's a very lucky boy.

"I hope he will be happy and we will be free."