Two 'Mowgli' boys were removed from the care of their 'drunkard' mother after police found them living in a squalid flat.
The pair, aged four and one, were living alongside a cat in a dirty Ukrainian flat that was littered with cigarette butts.
One of the boys, Aleksey, was spotted wandering the streets in search of food, prompting passers-by to call the police to get help for the child.
Officers found the four-year-old, who could not speak properly, and followed him back to his home.
Police walked through the open door of the family's flat, in the Cherkasy Oblast region of Ukraine, and found the youngster's brother, Danya, in tears, crying for his mum and crawling around naked on the floor.
There was no food in the fridge and there was rotting rubbish covering the dirty floor, according to police.
The living room also had exposed electric wires on the floor.
Aleksey's mother returned to the flat about 30 minutes after the cops arrived and told them she did not have time to cook or clean, although neighbours said she was often drunk and neglected the children.
The youngsters were taken away from their mum and placed in an orphanage, while activists removed the pet cat from the flat.
Local media reported that neither of the children had seen a doctor or been to a nursery in their lives.
The Sun reported that Victor Vichkan, the head deputy of local children protection service, said: “The mother is not interested in her sons’ fate.
“She has never visited the younger son in the orphanage. She is difficult to deal with.
“A special commission is to decide whether she would be deprived of parental rights.
"It is more likely she would.”
