New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
From Kyiv to Connecticut: How a Ukrainian family came to the U.S.
WESTPORT — On the night of Feb. 24, the Ustinovs awoke in their sleep to an abrupt noise of something flying overhead.
Olena Ustinov, the mother of now first-grader Lev and third-grader Neva, tried to convince herself the noise came from a car. After hearing it again, her husband, Alexander Ustinov, said it was time to pack.
The four lived in Kyiv, Ukraine and on that day, Russia invaded the country, starting a war that is still ongoing.
The family packed a few belongings in their bags, grabbed their cat and went to get Alexander’s mother.
The plan was to get a tourist visa and get to Alexander Ustinov’s brother, who lives in Westport.
Olena Ustinov said to her husband, “Are you crazy?” He said, “No, the war has started and we have to survive.”
She said she didn’t want to go, but she didn’t have another option.
Alexander Ustinov stayed in Ukraine, while the others crossed the border into Poland and got a bus ticket.
“It was really a sad situation because I told my husband goodbye, and I (didn’t) understand when I would see him again,” Olena Ustinov said.
When they got to the border, the line was extremely long. Olena Ustinov said it would be faster to walk to the border than wait for the busses, but it was cold because it was winter.
They tried, and they couldn’t handle the cold, so they had to go back to the bus. She called her husband, and he told her to go back at 2 a.m.
At that time, they made it with their belongings. Nobody was at the border at night.
The border police met the family and helped them across.
Olena Ustinov said there were people there waiting to help her family and other refugees drive to the embassy. She asked about a tourist visa to the United States, and it was denied because they did not have any reason to go back to Ukraine. The man at the embassy thought of them more as immigrants than tourists.
“I was so sad,” she said. “And then, my husband called me, and he said, ‘Don’t worry. We have another way to go to the United States.’ ”
Through Mexico, which according to a Syracuse University study, is how most Ukrainian refugees got into the U.S., specifically through San Diego.
Olena Ustinov said they researched this path online and found out it was dangerous.
“When you lose everything, what more? It’s our last chance,” she said.
When the Ustinovs eventually got to the border, they were stripped of many items, such as hair ties and shoelaces, and locked in a room. They got checked by a doctor, were given blanket-like items and put in a containment center-like building.
She said the room was for women and children, lacked windows and constantly had the lights on. They didn’t have phones while there. Lev Ustinov spent his birthday there.
“You just stay in, and you didn’t know what else,” Olena Ustinov said.
Meanwhile, Alexander Ustinov made his way to the U.S., too, but his trip was much different.
Olena Ustinov said he crossed the border between Ukraine and Moldova. In winter, he had to cross the Carpathian Mountains by foot at night.
“He told me his life split on two sides: before and after,” she said.
She said throughout his trip, they couldn’t talk to him.
“If something happened with him, no one (would) know,” she said.
Alexander Ustinov told his wife it was the only way to leave Ukraine and be with his family, Olena Ustinov said.
After interviews from border officers, the Ustinovs were eventually able to leave the center. The family was put in a hotel and checked for COVID-19. When they were cleared of the virus, they were able to meet up with their family in San Diego, and left for New York.
The whole trip took almost a month.
After the family arrived in New York, they met up with Alexander Ustinov, who happened to be on a plane at almost the same time.
Now, the family is living in Westport in their own apartment. They even met a Ukrainian realtor in Connecticut who helped them get it.
“We saw a lot of very kind people here in the USA,” she said.
Olena Ustinov said she really likes the town, especially the schools.
“They really care about my kids,” she said about their school, Kings Highway Elementary School.
Initially, the kids attended Coleytown Elementary School. She said they were very happy at school.
Neva Ustinov said learning English was a little hard. She learned some in Ukraine and now she’s learned more.
“I’m talking with kids in English,” she said.
Olena Ustinov said it was harder for Lev Ustinov. He’s still learning, and it was hard to explain what he wanted, she said.
He was also afraid about war, specifically that he was going to die.
Olena Ustinov said they decided as a family to stop talking about the war.
They told him everything was good.
“And step by step, he relaxed,” she said. “And, of course, (the) school supported us.”
Olena Ustinov said that the Westport community also came together to provide clothes and shoes for the family, which she said she appreciated. The Jewish Family Services also greatly helped them, specifically with furnishing their apartment, she noted.
She said it is good to know that in the United States, they are supported and backed up by the community.
Tracey Carbone, principal of Kings Highway Elementary School, said this is the first time in her 23 years there that there have been refugee students at the school. Since the Ustinovs’ arrival, the school has received two students from Colombia and another from Russia registered this week.
Carbone said that the school welcomes any refugee students.
“Our job is to help them join and become a part of the community,” she said about refugee students.
Carbone said she met with Olena Ustinov over the summer to discuss how to best transition the students.
“The family has really become part of the community since day one,” she said.
Carbone said Olena Ustinov even read to Neva Ustinov’s class on her birthday this year and the children are developing friendships.
“We have a group of caring adults who are ready and continue to be available to meet all their needs, so it’s been a smooth transition,” Carbone said.
“We’ve been working on a theme of belonging here since I became principal, and this was our first time welcoming refugee students, and we want to welcome anyone who joins the community and work to make sure they belong,” Carbone said. “Since Lev and Neva have been here, we’ve been able to make that come to life.
“We came together as a community to see how we could make them feel welcome,” Carbone said.