A U.S. father is desperate to get his American-born son out of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, where the 2-year-old has been living with his mother who abducted the boy in 2020.
Efforts by the AP to reach Aslanova were not successful. Email and LinkedIn messages were not returned. She currently doesn't have a lawyer in the child custody case in California, and a U.S. phone number she provided the court wasn’t working. A message was left on another phone listed under her name.
The letter also said State Department officials were asking Ukrainian officials why a critical February court hearing on the boy's case was delayed until late March. Quintana said he allowed Aslanova to visit their son at his home as Quintana recovered from gall bladder surgery. He said he fell asleep and when he woke in the afternoon she and Alexander were gone.
Meantime, Quintana obtained a visa and traveled to Ukraine, where he hired a lawyer to try to get his son returned. Quintana said he had remained in touch with Aslanova, provided financial support to her family and once in Ukraine was allowed visits with the boy. “If this happens, I am fearful Alexander and I will not be safe and American flights to Ukraine will be cancelled for an unknown period of time,” Quintana wrote. An order was made and the passport issued.