Photo: Leonora Saunders/Getty
A couple from California say they barely escaped Ukraine with their newborn child before shelling began amid the ongoingRussian invasion.
Together, they braved freezing winds to make the trek from a hospital in Kyiv — where Vivian had been born via surrogate just hours before explosions began to rock the city — to the Ukrainian-Polish border.
As theTimesreports, the Boeckmanns traveled from California to Ukraine on Feb. 13, one day before the surrogate was to give birth. When they arrived, doctors said she needed more time — so the couple waited and watched as tensions between Russia and Ukraine reached a fever pitch.
Then the airport in the capital city of Kyiv suspended all flights, leaving the couple and their newborn only one option: leave via the West.
Courtesy toska husted
Instead, they rushed out as quickly as they could, once they had secured Vivian’s birth certificate, leaving with a driver who spoke only Russian to head to a temporary U.S. Embassy, 340 miles west of the hospital, near the border with Poland.
What was meant to be a six-hour trip took 27 hours due to traffic back-ups and the fact that, mid-journey, the couple learned that the temporary embassy had closed. Their driver took them as close as he could to the border when traffic ground to a halt.
Jessie, 39, told her husband: “Jacob, we need to walk. We’re not going to make it if we don’t walk,” theTimesreports.
Seven miles later, they arrived at the border, waiting another two-and-a-half hours before Jessie and Vivian were admitted through in a crush of people.
Now, theTimesreports that they are on their way to Los Angeles.
Maciej Luczniewski/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Meanwhile, Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues after the country invaded on Feb. 24, with forces moving from the north, south and east.
source: people.com
