Footage released by a Russian state video news agency shows a U.S. citizen fleeing Ukraine passing through a checkpoint in Crimea before his parents claim he was captured by the Russian military.
Tina Hauser, of Winona, told local media that she last spoke to her son, Tyler Jacob, 28, on Saturday, when he told her Russian forces were forcing him to take a bus from Kherson and leave his Ukrainian wife and stepdaughter behind.
Speaking on Thursday, Houser said she hadn’t heard from Tyler in five days. She said US State Department officials have asked the Russian government for information on her son’s whereabouts and whether he is “still alive.”
The video, which was filmed in Armyansk, Crimea on Saturday night by Russian video-on-demand company Ruptly, shows Jacob passing through a Russian checkpoint on his way to Turkey.
In an interview with the publication, Jacob said he planned to take a charter flight to Turkey with people he met on the bus.
“I think I’ll be fine,” he said in the video.
Some time later, according to Yakov’s parents, he was seized by Russian troops and taken away.
“My worst nightmare is coming true and I am afraid that they will torture and kill him and I will never see my son again,” Hauser told KAALTV through tears.
The article that accompanied the Ruptly video claimed that the evacuation of 140 foreign nationals fleeing Ukraine was made possible by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“The evacuation was organized at the request of foreign embassies with a request for assistance in ensuring the safe departure of their citizens from the territory of Ukraine, as well as in response to appeals from foreign citizens addressed to the Russian military command of Kherson,” the ministry said in a statement. cited as a statement.
Houser said she contacted the US embassy in Moscow and received a call back on Wednesday, warning that it would be a “long and slow process,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
Minnesota native Tyler Jacob, 28, was spotted at a checkpoint in Crimea on Saturday, shortly before his parents said he had been taken prisoner by Russian forces.
Tina Hauser (left) says her son Tyler Jacob (right), 28, who lives in Ukraine, was taken prisoner by Russian forces on Saturday.
When the bus reached Russian-held Crimea, Jacob, the only American on board, was escorted out by Russian troops.
Jacob from Minnesota was living with his wife and stepdaughter in Kherson on the Black Sea when the Russian invasion began three weeks ago. This March 15 satellite image shows the Kherson Air Base on fire following an alleged airstrike on Russian troops occupying the base.
Jacob boarded an evacuation bus for foreigners bound for Turkey on Saturday when this photo of Ukrainian protesters was taken in Kherson.
She also reached out to Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office for help.
“My heart goes out to Tyler’s family and we will do our best to find him. My office is working with the State Department and the Embassy to find him and resolve this situation as quickly as possible,” Klobuchar said in a statement.
The State Department said it was aware of the reports but, due to privacy concerns, would not comment further.
Jacob moved to Ukraine last November to teach English at a language school in Kherson. There he met his future wife, and they got married in January. A month later, Russian troops invaded Ukraine and the family, including Jacob’s stepdaughter, were trapped, he told Ruptly on Saturday.
“He met a girl there, fell in love, got married, and now we’re in a quandary,” Tyler’s father, John Quinn, told WCCO-TV.
Before the war, Yakov (left) taught English at the Kherson Camford School. His father, John Quinn (right), is worried that the Kremlin will use Jacob as a pawn.
The family turned to Senator Amy Klobuchar, who arrived for a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, for help.
Kherson, a southern city of 290,000 on the Black Sea, was captured by invading Russian forces at the start of the war, now in its fourth week.
Quinn said Jacob boarded an evacuation bus for foreigners heading to Turkey on Saturday. But at a checkpoint in Russian-held Crimea, the bus was stopped by Russian soldiers and Jacob, who was said to be the only American on board, was detained, WCCO-TV reported.
“It’s terrible that your child had to go through something like this,” his father said.
Quinn added that he was concerned that Jacob would be used as a pawn by the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, Jacob’s distraught mother said she waited anxiously by the phone day and night, hoping to hear from her son.
“I just cling to my phone, leaving it on all night, hoping that he will call or text me that he is fine, but I get nothing,” Houser told KARE11.