'I did what any dad would do': Man returns to Ukraine to rescue daughter, grandson from war zone
Just prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a Massachusetts man flew out of the country where he was attempting to help get his daughter and 8-month-old grandson to safety. He has now bravely returned to the war zone to continue that work.
"I did what any dad would do, I guess, in this situation," said William Hubbard, of Fitchburg.
Hubbard's daughter Aislinn made headlines in 2018 when she was invited to study at a prestigious ballet college in Kyiv.
Hubbard and his wife, Deborah, before the fighting started but the baby boy, Seraphim, was born at home. He has neither a birth certificate nor a passport.
"In Ukraine, because of COVID, many women have chosen to have home births," William Hubbard said. "And when you have a baby at home in Ukraine, the pathway to getting a birth certificate is much more difficult."
During his previous visit to Ukraine, Hubbard tried to arrange a DNA test to help prove Seraphim's U.S. citizenship.
After he left, Hubbard's daughter said she could feel the Russians closing in.
"I was constantly hearing loud noises outside," Aislinn Hubbard said. "And the windows were shaking."
Aislinn Hubbard, her boyfriend and the child live about 18 miles from the capital of Kyiv and 300 miles from an international border. The couple doesn't own a vehicle.
Back in Massachusetts, the Hubbards knew they had to help their daughter leave Ukraine but also knew she wouldn't be safe traveling alone across the war-torn country with a small child.
William Hubbard decided to return to Ukraine.
He flew to Istanbul, Turkey, and then to Warsaw, Poland, where he boarded a train to southern Poland and walked across the border into Ukraine. Once in the country, Hubbard hitched a ride to Lviv and then hopped another train to Kyiv.
"My only thought was to work through every issue and every problem that I would come across and to get to where my daughter and grandson were," he said.
Once reunited, they gathered up four cats and said goodbye to Aislinn's boyfriend, the baby's father, who is not allowed to leave the country. Then they started making their way back across Ukraine along with hundreds of thousands of other refugees who are fleeing west.
As of Friday, they're waiting at the border with Slovakia.
Baby Seraphim still doesn't have his paperwork but the Hubbards say they're confident they'll be able to cross the border to safety.
"That's what dads do. They take care of their family," William Hubbard said.
