Russia-Ukraine: Australian couple fly into warzone to pickup baby


An Australian couple have risked their lives to fly to warn-torn Ukraine and bring their newborn daughter home after she was delivered prematurely via local surrogate. 

Melbourne couple Jessica and Kevin Van Nooten received news their daughter Alba had been born 10 weeks early in Odesa, Ukraine, on Tuesday. 

The couple have already caught a plane to Dubai and will fly to Poland before driving to Moldova and attempting to cross the Ukrainian border and pick up their daughter. 

It comes despite the Australian government warning residents against travelling to the Ukraine after Russian forces invaded the country on Thursday.

Melbourne couple Jessica and Kevin Van Nooten received news their daughter Alba had been born 10 weeks early in Odesa, Ukraine, on Tuesday

Melbourne couple Jessica and Kevin Van Nooten received news their daughter Alba had been born 10 weeks early in Odesa, Ukraine, on Tuesday

The couple have already caught a plane to Dubai and will fly to Poland before driving to Moldova and attempting to cross the Ukrainian border and pick up their daughter

The couple have already caught a plane to Dubai and will fly to Poland before driving to Moldova and attempting to cross the Ukrainian border and pick up their daughter

Fighting has escalated as Russia launches an all-out assault against the capital city of Kyiv – which is more than 400 kilometres away from Odessa. 

Fears have been raised Russia may deploy high-powered thermobaric weapons that have been dubbed the ‘father of all bombs’. 

A thermobaric bomb dropped by the US on Taliban in Afghanistan in 2017 weighed 21,600 pounds and left a crater more than 300 meters (1,000 feet) wide after it exploded six feet above the ground. 

‘DFAT rang today and were like, “Do not go to the Ukraine”,’ Ms Van Nooten told 7News. ‘I said, ‘I’m going to Ukraine’. How could you not go? 

‘Scott Morrison has children. How could you not go? Are you just going to leave your child there? It’s not an option.’ 

Ms Van Nooten revealed the couple had planned to catch a flight from Melbourne to the Ukraine with a stopover in Dubai.

She then received a call directly from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade during the stopover on Wednesday. 

‘They said to me, “All flights have been cancelled”,’ she told ABC Radio Melbourne. ‘And I said, ‘We’re pretty sure they’re still going”.’

Ms Van Nooten received a text message from the airline confirming the cancellation. The couple were forced to buy another ticket to Poland. 

Ms Van Nooten and her husband have exhausted all methods of trying to conceive a child.

Fears have been raised Russia may deploy high-powered thermobaric weapons that have been dubbed the 'father of all bombs'

Fears have been raised Russia may deploy high-powered thermobaric weapons that have been dubbed the ‘father of all bombs’

Soldiers tasked with defending Kyiv from advancing Russian troops take up positions underneath a highway into the city

Soldiers tasked with defending Kyiv from advancing Russian troops take up positions underneath a highway into the city 

The couple have gone through 15 rounds of IVF and carried on through a miscarriage.

They then married so they could qualify for surrogacy in the Ukraine, but had to put a pin in their plans because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ms Van Nooten sent her embryos overseas in May 2021 before the surrogate fell pregnant in September.

Their baby daughter was then born prematurely at 29 weeks and she is currently being looked after in a neonatal intensive care unit.

‘We got a message on Tuesday night … our baby was born via emergency I don’t even know if it’s a C section or a natural and then I (thought) I’ve got to get out of here,’ Ms Van Nooten said.    

Ukrainian soldiers are pictured forming up across a highway in Kyiv as they prepare to defend the city from Russian attackers, with gunfire and explosions heard in the centre of the capital

Ukrainian soldiers are pictured forming up across a highway in Kyiv as they prepare to defend the city from Russian attackers, with gunfire and explosions heard in the centre of the capital

While Russian special forces have reached the suburbs of Kyiv, the bulk of Russia’s heavy armour is believed to be still more than 50km away from the capital.

Western officials have suggested Russia will kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his ministers if they seize Kyiv. 

Russia is launching a massive amphibious assault to bring thousands of navy personnel ashore in Ukraine on Friday, as Kyiv puts up a more aggressive defense than Moscow ever expected.

The assault is already underway in Ukraine, and Russian personnel sailed through the Sea of Azov, coming into west of Mariupol, a senior U.S. defence official said. The amphibious assault represents a significant ramping up of the conflict, as the Russian navy has until now played a largely supporting role in the fight.

Russian troops move towards Ukraine on the road near Armiansk, Crimea, in what appears to be the convoy that a citizen later tried to stop as it drove down a highway

Russian troops move towards Ukraine on the road near Armiansk, Crimea, in what appears to be the convoy that a citizen later tried to stop as it drove down a highway

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