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An update on the evacuation of American twins born prematurely in Ukraine

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Many of you responded to a story we aired earlier this week about premature twins born through surrogacy in Ukraine. In a daring rescue, they were evacuated from Kyiv to join their American father in Poland. Well, today we have an update.

ALEX SPEKTOR: We're about to pick up Irma from the airport.

SHAPIRO: When I called the father, Alex Spektor, today, he was at the arrivals hall in Krakow to pick up his partner, Irma.

SPEKTOR: She's about to come out of the gate.

SHAPIRO: She's going to meet her sons for the first time tomorrow.

SPEKTOR: They've been keeping - they're still in the hospital. They have to be there for at least another week or two.

SHAPIRO: Alex, who goes by Sasha, got to feed his twins for the first time yesterday.

SPEKTOR: And today I got to hold them without, you know, the bundle, just, like, their tiny little bodies, the chicken legs and all.

SHAPIRO: Do they have different personalities yet, Lenny and Moishe?

SPEKTOR: They actually do. And I think that's the most incredible thing for me at least, just to learn about them and just to get to see the details of their faces and, you know, just to see the human being in them.

SHAPIRO: The surrogate, Katya, is safely in Lviv with her 6-year-old son. They're being evacuated to Poland tomorrow. And the medical equipment that Sasha brought from Chicago is now being used to take more babies out of Kyiv. Sasha has decided to use the contacts he made through this ordeal to organize the shipment of more medical supplies into Ukraine.

SPEKTOR: Yeah. I want to organize this flow of medical supplies to Poland and then to people who can disperse them throughout Ukraine.

SHAPIRO: He says now that their babies are safe, he wants to use the momentum he's built to help others.

(SOUNDBITE OF AMPARO'S "COASTAL DUSK")

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

That is our co-host Ari Shapiro reporting in Poland, near the border with Ukraine.

(SOUNDBITE OF AMPARO'S "COASTAL DUSK") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Ari Shapiro has been one of the hosts of All Things Considered, NPR's award-winning afternoon newsmagazine, since 2015. During his first two years on the program, listenership to All Things Considered grew at an unprecedented rate, with more people tuning in during a typical quarter-hour than any other program on the radio.
Courtney Dorning has been a Senior Editor for NPR's All Things Considered since November 2018. In that role, she's the lead editor for the daily show. Dorning is responsible for newsmaker interviews, lead news segments and the small, quirky features that are a hallmark of the network's flagship afternoon magazine program.