As of this writing, nearly 3 million Ukrainians have fled their homeland as Russia continues to attempt to overtake the country. The vast majority of the refugees are women and children, as most Ukrainian men age 18 to 60 have been told by the Ukraine State Border Guard Service that they can’t leave their country, in anticipation that they may be called to fight. So every day, tens, if not hundreds of thousands of families are broken apart as women and children leave their war-torn country, leaving their husbands behind.
Three who fled are Olha Korol and her infant son, Severyn Korotniuk, as well as Korol’s mother, Tanya. They left Ukraine in early March, after the Russian military invaded. Korol’s husband and father stayed behind in Kyiv.
The trio managed to escape to Katowice, Poland. From there, they took a 20-hour bus ride to Frankfurt, Germany.
With extended family in San Jose, California, Korol planned to fly from Frankfurt to San Francisco – United and Lufthansa both offer nonstop flights, while other airlines offer transport between the two cities with just 1 stop. She had a flight scheduled for the three of them on March 7th.
Unfortunately, Korol ran into a roadblock. She wasn’t able to fly because although she and her mom both have passports and visitor visas to the U.S., little Severyn didn’t.
“I went to the Ukrainian consulate in Frankfurt. They put a photo of my baby in my passport. They put stamps showing it’s official and legal. They said it should be enough. He’s an infant, he’s small, he doesn’t have anything. Then we boarded the plane and the (airlines) did not board us because the baby doesn’t have a passport,” Korol told KRON4.
Korol’s cousin, Lena Tutko, a resident of San Jose, is trying to help on this side of the ocean. She’s set up a GoFundMe to raise funds for Korol’s stay and expenses in Frankfurt while she goes through this red tape.
Tutko wrote on the platform: “The problem is Ukrainian passports are only issued in Kyiv, Ukraine, and the passport office is not operating. So now they are stuck in a foreign country, with no resolution in sight.”
I don’t know about the issuance of a brand new passport during a war, but if someone’s passport is lost or stolen, it’s generally recommended they contact their country’s nearest embassy. Ukraine’s embassy is in Berlin. But that’s only half of it. Getting a visa to enter the U.S. is…more red tape.
Last week, Veronika Didusenko, Miss Ukraine 2018, called on the United States to do more to help mothers and their children who are fleeing Ukraine. She requested we start granting “humanitarian parole.” That status allows otherwise ineligible people to enter the United States “if you have a compelling emergency and there is an urgent humanitarian reason or significant public benefit to allowing you to temporarily enter the United States,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Didusenko fled with her 7-year-old son, Alexander, from Kyiv when Russian military bombs began falling from the sky. They managed to escape over Ukraine’s southwestern border, and travel across Moldova, Romania and Luxembourg before reaching a friend’s home in Switzerland.
Didusenko said she went to a U.S. embassy to get a travel visa for her son so they could fly to California together.
Her son’s visa application was denied.
Although understandable from a legal point of view, it’s still a tragic situation. If nothing else, at least Korol and her family, and Didusenko and her son are all safe. Hopefully, the male members of their families will stay safe, too.
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