Ukrainian boy reunites with mom in Queens after congressman helps clip red tape

Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News Four-year old Mykhailo Kuzmin (right) snuggles with his mother, Natalia Kuzmina. Rep. Steve Israel helped expedite immigration paperwork so the youngster could leave the Ukraine and be reunited with his mother. The two had been separated for four months.

A 4-year-old Ukrainian boy struggling to reunite with his distraught Whitestone mother is back in her arms after a frightening four-month separation.

Natalia Kuzmina flew to Kiev earlier this month to file citizenship papework before heading to the Vinnytsia region of the Ukraine, where little Mykhailo Kuzmin had been holed up with an ill grandfather since long before the pro-Russian uprising that made Crimea a household name.

The boy arrived safely and soundly in Queens on Friday.

“I’m so happy, I can’t even explain,” said Kuzmina, 28, a computer programmer. “I was so afraid. A lot of things were happening and I wasn’t sure he was in a safe place.”

The ordeal began when Kuzmina and her husband, Julian Zagorodnev, married in Las Vegas in November with the intention of bringing Mykhailo back to the United States.

Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News Congressman Steve Israel and four-year old Mykhailo Kuzmin play with Legos in the youngster’s Whitestone home. Israel helped reunite Mykhailo with his mother who was unable to get him out of the Ukraine. They arrived in New York on Friday.

Their plan became more urgent, however, when her dad fell ill and the upheaval in her homeland began to flare up.

“A process that normally takes 10-12 months took exactly two months and two days,” said U.S. Rep Steve Israel, who helped cut through red tape to reunite the mother and son after she sought out his help. “And more important than anything else, Mischa is now in America with his mother.”

Kuzmina was working as an assistant professor and project manager for a computer company when she met Zagorodnev, an American citizen who was born in Belarus.

Zagorodnev was building a team of computer programmers for his company and hired Kuzmina, and the pair soon fell in love and married during a business trip to Las Vegas.

Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News Little Mykhailo Kuzmin is reunited with his mother Natalia Kuzmina and step father in Whitestone after living in the Ukraine. Rep. Steve Israel helped expedite immigration paperwork to reunite the mother and son who had been separated for four months.

But she quickly found that a mountain of paperwork stood between her and her son in the Ukraine — just as the political upheaval deteriorated into violence.

“Probably the biggest happiness in the world is to see your child and be with your child,” she said as the boy nuzzled her and played with a cross on her neck.

Kuzmina said she’s ready to look for school programs for Mykhailo, who loves soccer and Disney’s “Cars” movies. She said he will likely Americanize his name to “Michael.”

For now, the two are cherishing all their time together.

“He’s just happy and enjoying to have me around him,” said Kuzmina. “He doesn’t want me to go anywhere without him.”

lcolangelo@nydailynews.com

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