Ukranian mother and son taken in by strangers in Estepona

Alina Kholodna is a Ukrainian doctor who has just arrived in Estepona with her seven-year-old son, Heorhii. Waiting for them in the doorway of a sunny whitewashed house were Denise Liaño, her husband Leandro and their son Emilio. The two families don't know each other and have never even spoken by phone, but they greeted each other with a huge hug and tears in their eyes.

Alina's husband stayed behind. "He won't be fighting, but he's a builder so he'll do whatever he can to help that way," she says, but didn't sound very convinced.

Her parents stayed in Kyiv to look after her grandmother, who is too frail to travel. She says she is heartbroken, but had to save her son.

"We couldn't hide what was happening from him, all the explosions, sirens, ambulances. How could we?" she asks.

Now they are safe. But the heartbreak is neverending.