By Alex Robinson
A Whitestone mother and her 4-year-old son, who was stranded in Ukraine for months, have been reunited, after U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-Melville) intervened.
Nathalia Kuzmina had to leave her son, Mykhailo, behind when she immigrated to the United States eight months ago. She moved with her Belarussian-born husband, Julian Zagarodnev, an American citizen and the boy’s stepfather, so she could send money back to her son.
“Every child should be with his family. His family is here and he needs to be here,” Kuzmina told reporters in her apartment Wednesday morning with her son in her arms.
Kuzmina traveled to Ukraine last week to reunite with Mykhailo, who had been living with his grandfather in Vinnytsia, 150 miles from Ukraine’s capital, Kiev.
She had not seen the boy, who is too young to travel on his own, in four months and could not make the trip to Ukraine until recently because of complications with her own work visa.
When Israel heard about the mother’s plight, he decided to step in and petition U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the hopes of expediting the process.
“We wouldn’t take no for an answer and we kept pressing and pressing,” Israel said.
As a result, getting Mykhailo a green card took a week rather than the usual six to 10 months.
“More important than anything else, Mykhailo is now in America and he’s in America with his mother,” Israel said.
Within two months of contacting Israel’s office, Kuzmina was also issued a green card and was on her way to getting back together with her son.
“Both of us were crying. We were so happy,” said a beaming Kuzmina of the reunion. Mykhailo first screamed, “Mama” when he saw his mother again for the first time in months, Kuzmina said. The two hugged and cried together.
The country has been reeling with unrest following the ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russian government in February and subsequent referendum by Crimea to join Russia. The referendum was widely decried by the international community as illegitimate and in violation of the Ukrainian constitution. Clashes have broken out between government forces and pro-Russian militias in Eastern Ukraine.
But this was no longer an immediate worry for a happy mother Wednesday morning as she watched her son play with Legos.
“It’s probably the biggest happiness in the world to be with your child, to be able to see him every day,” Kuzmina said. “You can’t realize it when you have the child every day, but when you’re apart from him you just feel that you should be together.”
Reach reporter Alex Robinson by e-mail at arobinson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
