SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — New mother Olga Korol shared photos of more peaceful times for her Ukrainian family, including her husband and 4-month-old son Severin.
“He’s trying to get intonation, to pick things up,” Korol told ABC7 News of the little boy. “Now he can hold a toy in his hands.”
From Germany, she explained that her family had left their home in Kyiv in early March. She said they had traveled to meet her parents in Khmelnytskyi, in the west of the country.
During their flight, Korol remembers having often heard sirens sounding. She said that at one point the family was forced into a shelter which she said was freezing and unsuitable for a baby.
“And the air doesn’t suit him,” she added.
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As Russia’s armed invasion grew increasingly destructive and deadly, Korol said she and her husband remained focused on keeping Severin safe.
“It’s too scary for the baby’s life to stay. And that’s why we’re doing all of this,” she explained. “It seems, because when you can’t do anything, and you have to think about baby.”
She knew they had to leave Ukraine and planned to join her family here in the Bay Area.
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“The only possible way to leave the country is by bus, which took us almost 20 hours,” she said. “We spent eight to ten hours at a border check on our bus. There were only women and children.”
Korol’s husband and father stayed. She, Severin and her mother then flew from Poland to Frankfurt, Germany. almost no problem.
She said the airline had lost her luggage.
“Can you imagine? I didn’t have any toothpaste, I didn’t have my underwear. What I was wearing was on me and that’s it. And also, we lost a lot of things (for the) baby,” Korol added. .
Their final destination was San Francisco.
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However, they never did on this connecting flight to SFO. Instead, their itinerary was impacted without the necessary travel documents for little Severin.
“He only has a birth certificate and he doesn’t have a passport,” Korol said. “I applied for a passport in kyiv, but Russia started bombing our city. Of course, it’s not possible to get a foreign passport.”
Currently, Ukrainian embassies and consulates cannot issue new passports. The Consulate General of Ukraine in San Francisco, Dmytro Kushneruk, confirmed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – in the case of a baby without a passport – allowed the registration of the baby on a parent’s passport with a photo.
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Korol said she has completed this step, which means Severin’s passport is now a page inside hers.
“On the American side, he didn’t have a valid visa,” Korol’s cousin, Lena Tutko, told ABC7 News. “And for him to get that visa to travel to the United States, he has to have a passport. In Frankfurt, the fact that he was listed in his mother’s passport was not enough.”
Tutko lives in San Jose and is part of the Bay Area Korol family that has spent the past two weeks reaching out to lawmakers and others for help.
Tutko has set up a online campaign to help cover Korol hotels, Airbnb and other expenses, as she is apparently stuck in a foreign country.
In an email, Kushneruk confirmed, “To go to the United States, everyone needs a visa, but that’s the procedure with the American embassy or consulate in Frankfurt.”
Part of Korol’s advancement would be providing the passport she now has.
“Then we have another problem. I have to put, you know, in the boxes… documents. But I didn’t put my passport because it was too risky. It’s the only document”, Korol said.
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Tutko explained: “She didn’t feel comfortable depositing her passport – her only form of documentation – in a slot somewhere in Germany and then being left without any documents.”
Worry, while Korol should enjoy the first months of her motherhood.
Korol said she didn’t want to apply for refugee status, saying it seemed too permanent.
“There are a lot of rules,” she told ABC7 News.
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She hopes one day to return to her country, to the family home and to her husband.
“I miss him every day. He’s in terrorism defense now. And I’m scared. I’m scared, you know, because I didn’t want to think about it,” Korol said. “I tried to focus on this baby and give him good vibes because he feels everything.”
For a link to the GoFundMe campaign, click here.
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