A teacher from Minnesota taken into custody by Russian forces in Ukraine has been freed after 10 days.
28-year-old Tyler Jacob moved to Ukraine last November to live with his longtime girlfriend and was detained earlier this month while trying to cross into Turkey amid the ongoing Russian invasion.
Incredible news! Minnesota teacher, 28, is FREED ten days after being seized and imprisoned by Russian soldiers while attempting to flee Ukraine: He has since been reunited with his Ukrainian wife https://t.co/I0Pr8ocsq3
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) March 26, 2022
Senator Amy Klobuchar said she reached out to the U.S. State Department and connected with John Sullivan, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, to bring Jacob home.
“I am relieved that Tyler is safely reunited with his wife and daughter,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “Over the last two weeks, my team and I have been in close contact with his family, the State Department, and the U.S. embassy in Moscow working towards this outcome, and I am grateful that we were able to help bring him to safety.”
Jacob’s mother, Tina Hauser, shared her relief about her son’s safety and said that she already got in contact with him via a video conference on Friday.
“I am so ecstatic that Tyler is safe,” added Hauser in the statement. “This has been a harrowing experience, and I am so grateful to the officials in the State Department and embassy who helped us locate Tyler and get him out of Russia. I am especially grateful to Senator Klobuchar for her steadfast support through this whole process. This was a parent’s worst nightmare, but I can rest easy tonight knowing my son has made it to safety.”
His father told reporters on Friday that Jacob wasn’t mistreated while in captivity but that he was tired after going through the whole thing
“It was a roller coaster,’ said John Quinn, Jacob’s father. “It was up and down, the hurdles that we had to get over to get him to safety. They were treating him very well there. He had no complaints at all about how he was treated.”
According to Jacob’s parents, he met a Ukrainian woman online last summer before visiting her and getting married in January.
The Winona native got a job teaching English in a small village outside Kherson. However, the couple, as well as Jacob’s new stepdaughter, found themselves trapped after Russian forces began invading Ukraine last month.
