- April 18, 2024
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Back row: Vasil and Olga Dubovyk, Tanya Jean-Gilles, Inna Kuzmenko, Dmitriy Melnichuk, Maryna Kurentsova, Ryan Grigg. Front: Jonathan Jean-Gilles, Tymur Kuzmenko, Lucia Navarro, Mariia Kurentsova, Ashleigh Taylor.
Inna Kuzmenko and her son Tymur at the end of a day at basketball camp. Photos by Brent Woronoff
On the first two nights of Russia’s air attack on Ukraine, Inna Kuzmenko and her son, Tymur, slept in the closet of their Kyiv apartment. It was the only room without a window.
But when two rockets destroyed an apartment building less than two miles away, they moved into an underground bomb shelter. The next day, they began their odyssey to the United States.
Inna’s cousin Maryna Kurentsova and her daughter, Mariia, had their own harrowing journey to the U.S.
After making their way to Mexico, they were granted humanitarian parole. The four of them have been living with their uncle and his wife in Palm Coast for the past two months.
They have applied for temporary protective status. For now, they don’t have work authorization, and they don’t qualify for Medicaid or food assistance.
“The worst part was how we decided to leave. We didn’t decide. We couldn’t return to our home because of the air attacks. It wasn't planned.”
INNA KUZMENKO
They are grateful for all the help they’ve received. Their uncle, Dmitriy Melnichuk, is sponsoring and supporting them. They also have a large, extended family and new friends in Palm Coast. On June 4, they all celebrated Mariia’s 11th birthday.
Mariia is attending Rymfire Elementary School. Tymur, 12, is a student at Buddy Taylor Middle School.
“We so appreciate all the people who have helped us here,” Inna said, with her cousin, Vasil Dubovyk, translating. “Everyone from neighbors to the sheriff have helped us.”
Sheriff Rick Staly contacted the Bike Men of Flagler County, who provided four bicycles and safety helmets to Inna and Maryna and the children. Flagler Palm Coast High School girls basketball coaches Anthony Wagner and Tommy Daily, who both teach at Buddy Taylor, provided Tymur with a scholarship to the team’s basketball camp.
“I like basketball,” Tymur said. “In Ukraine some teams didn’t want me, because I’m not tall and I don’t have skills, but now I have some skills.”
Tymur said life in America is like “one big movie.”
“Here, I feel good. I’m happy,” he said.
Tymur said he misses his father. Men, between the ages of 18 and 60, are not allowed to leave Ukraine in anticipation they might be called to fight. Fathers with three or more children are excepted and can leave with their families.
Inna and Maryna are divorced, but they maintain good relationships with their ex-husbands.
Inna’s ex-husband, Sergii, drove Inna and Tymur to western Ukraine. They had nothing but documents and one backpack, Inna said.
“The worst part was how we decided to leave,” she said. “We didn’t decide. We couldn’t return to our home because of the air attacks. It wasn't planned.”
Inna and Tymur drove through Slovakia, Germany and Austria. After three days, they stopped in Switzerland, where they stayed for a few days with Tymur’s godmother, who was trying to move her parents out of Ukraine.
On social media, they learned about Ukrainians being allowed to enter the U.S. from Mexico under humanitarian parole status. Melnichuk bought tickets for them to Mexico. They flew from Zurich to Madrid, to Mexico City and finally to Matamoros, Mexico, which is across the border from Brownsville, Texas.
“At the checkpoint, we had a meeting with officers who asked what purpose we (had) in the United States, what our plans for staying were and whether we had relatives or friends who could support us.”
INNA KUZMENKO
“The entire journey in air travel took 59 hours,” Inna said. “With the help from my cousin and his acquaintances in Mexico, we were met by a Mexican family at the Matamoros airport, and they led us to the border. At the checkpoint, we had a meeting with officers who asked what purpose we (had) in the United States, what our plans for staying were and whether we had relatives or friends who could support us.”
Maryna and Mariia had their own arduous journey. They fled Kharkiv, which is about 300 miles east of Kyiv, after the Feb. 24 invasion. They stayed for a week with Maryna’s parents, who lived outside the city. After surviving a terrifying night of bombing in the basement, they crammed into an overcrowded train to Lviv, in western Ukraine, and then waited on line for 28 hours to take a bus into Poland.
Once in Poland, Maryna looked for a job and an apartment, but there were a lot of displaced Ukrainians also looking to start over. After 10 days, they went to stay with a cousin in Portugal. That’s when Inna called. They made arrangements to meet in Mexico and traveled to the border together.
They don’t know how long they will be allowed to stay in the U.S. They don’t know how long the war will last. But they are grateful to be here.
“If we couldn’t come here, I don’t know where we would go or where we would stay,” Inna said.
