Yuliia Kuzma risks her life in Ukraine to save adopted nephew Maxim
The love of a young nephew propelled a Queensland woman into the hurricane of war in Europe. Read the incredible story of how she brought him home.
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Vladimir Putin’s rampage through Ukraine has left thousands dead, but the terror of total war did not stop Proserpine’s Yuliia Kuzma from fulfilling her “destiny.”
Over nine remarkable days, Ms Kuzma travelled from the Whitsundays to the heart of the largest land-war in Europe since 1945 to rescue her nephew Maxim from the rubble.
Maxim is now safe in Proserpine and Ms Kuzma’s seven-year-old twins Anya and Sasha are thrilled to welcome him to the family.
“Maxim is not used to getting much attention from everyone,” Ms Kuzma said in her thick Ukrainian accent.
“All his life he has been all by himself.
“He hasn’t had many kids around him.
“And now, (my) kids just cover him up and won’t let him go.”
Ms Kuzma said the twins had counted down the days until Maxim’s arrival.
“Every day before, they been counting the days and crying because they wanted to see their big brother.
“Every day they have been asking, when will he be here?
“They so excited, they been hugging him, all over him.”
Maxim turns 13 in July and cannot yet speak English.
Ms Kuzma translates her twins’ expressions of affection to Maxim.
“How they love him and want him to accept them as brother and sister,” she said.
Ms Kuzma said Maxim’s life had been like a “TV show.”
Maxim is the son of Ms Kuzma’s younger sister, who tragically passed away from a lung infection.
Maxim was also cared for by a Godmother, but he was taken away from her by child services.
“She wasn’t a responsible lady,” Ms Kuzma said.
Ms Kuzma decided to adopt Maxim and try to bring him to Australia.
When war erupted in February, Maxim was trapped in Kharkiv, an eastern city subjected to heavy shelling from the Russian military.
Ms Kuzma’s best friend took Maxim by car and left for Kremenchuk, a city in the centre of the country.
She received a personal exemption from the Australian government to travel there and her first move was a flight to Warsaw.
“Either I get him or he will be stuck there,” she said, noting Maxim would not have been able to catch a train or cross the border into Poland without her.
She is full of praise for the government’s support and said getting her Australian citizenship earlier in the year had made all the difference.
“I felt all the care, the government looked after me,” she said.
“They provided to me a special officer in Poland, officer’s name is Diana and she looked after me all the way.”
Ms Kuzma said Diana contacted her at least three times a day.
She also sat for an interview with Diana and another officer in Poland to map out all the details of her journey: the route she would take and how long she would stay in Ukraine.
“Amazing girl, I don’t know her last name,” she said.
“I’m pretty sure she was in some kind of foreign affairs department.
“She was completely informed.
“She provides right information.
Commercial flights into Ukraine have disappeared and Ms Kuzma crossed the border in a bus.
The war is located primarily in the east and Ms Kuzma said the initial drive into the country was not too shocking, though “some of the places had been bombed”.
On a train, the curtains were closed to avoid attention.
She spoke with a man who told her “lots of horrible stories” from the east before she found Maxim in Kremenchuk.
The city was secure, though sirens were a regular feature of daily life.
“In Kremenchuk, I first experienced sirens,” she said.
“Each day, I hear about five sirens.
“In Kharkiv, my home city, it would be 10 times more.
“It’s non-stop and people always need to hide.”
Speaking with Ms Kuzma in the late afternoon on Anzac Day, four days after her return to Australia, a darker picture of Kremenchuk emerges.
Ms Kuzma received text messages from Ukrainian friends that the Russian military had launched nine rockets into the city.
On the bus back to Poland with Maxim, Ms Kuzma said she counted multiple army posts set up by the side of the road.
Ms Kuzma said she witnessed tremendous bravery and a spirit of collective loyalty in her native land.
“People start to be very supportive to each other,” she said.
“Because before, the mentality of people being, ‘I’m going to do everything by myself.’
“‘Everything will be fine’.
“People wasn’t so supportive and kind to each other before.
“But war just united everyone together.
“Everyone is helping each other.
“Everyone is coming to help you from nowhere.”
Ms Kuzma’s voice started to break when she talked about the generosity of the Polish people.
“Polish people were amazing,” she said.
“I wanted to cry all the time.
“Of their support, it’s unbelievable how people can be so nice.
“And even the people here (in Australia).
“Everyone is supportive, everyone is looking after people like me.
“I’ve been blessed.”
Ms Kuzma said some Ukrainians had begun to feel hatred towards Russians.
She said she held “different beliefs” and her unhappiness was directed towards the Russian government and not its people.
“I believe no people should be dying in this war, no Ukrainians, no Russian people, no one,” she said.
“It’s unbelievable when people die.
“I’m so sad for everyone.
“We’ve been like brothers (Ukrainians and Russians) together, like Australians and New Zealanders.
“I don’t hate Russian people at all.
“I would say I would be very happy if the government of the Russian Federation would just go into the prison.”
Ms Kuzma is a Russian speaker and she has family living in Russia.
She said the claim that the war was a military operation to rescue Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine from discrimination and violence was false.
“My country never abused me when I speak Russian,” she said.
“It’s not true.”
Looking to the future, she hopes to enrol Maxim in school.
First though, she needs to secure a child visa.
Maxim cannot go to school without one and she said the waiting period for the visa could stretch out for one and a half years.
At the moment, he is on a tourist visa.
She hopes the government will fast-track the approval process.
Ms Kuzma works at Woolworths and Proserpine Pies and Pastries.
She calls Proserpine a “blessed community” and says she has never received as much support in her life as she has from the small township.
“I’ve never had such an amazing experience,” she said.
She said the strength and support she received from the community helped her reunite with Maxim.
“It was wonderful,” she said.
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