A Ukrainian student who fled to Ireland from Kyiv during Russia’s invasion is calling on the public to give children trapped in Ukraine a “gift of hope.” Maks Hudyma says he experienced the impact of a small kindness when he received a shoebox gift as a child, describing it as making him feel “very special.”
Across reports, Hudyma is presented as someone who left his mother, Oksana, behind when he was forced to flee. Irish media describe his plea as a way to bring support to children who have not been able to escape the conflict. While the core message is consistent—encouraging people in Ireland to donate shoebox-style gifts—outlets differ slightly in the personal details they foreground and in how explicitly they describe his age and circumstances at the time he arrived in Ireland.
Taken together, the coverage frames the appeal as rooted in Hudyma’s own experience of displacement and receiving support, with attention centered on the children still living with the war’s effects.
