In a video recently posted to social media, a Russian soldier in heavy body armor holds an American passport in his hands and says it belongs to an American mercenary who was killed in Ukraine.
The soldier says in video posted to messaging app Telegram earlier this month that the mercenary is buried in a settlement outside the city of Mariupol, which Russia earlier this week claimed it had captured in its ongoing war with its neighbor .
But Cesar Quintana of Orange County said the passport is his. The Russian journalist who posted the video also posted a closeup of the passport showing Quintana’s face.
Quintana, 35, said the document was seized by Ukrainian authorities while he was in Mariupol last year as he tried to regain custody of his two-year-old son Alexander, who was born in the United States
Quintana and his estranged wife, Antonina Aslanova, are embroiled in an international custody battle made even more complicated by the war.
“I know this passport,” Quintana said in a recent interview with The Times. “It was taken from me by the Mariupol police when I was in Ukraine trying to get my son out of the country.”
Quintana said he and his wife had been separated when she visited him and their son at his home in Aliso Viejo in December 2020. He said he was recovering from gallbladder surgery and when he fell asleep his wife took their son and fled to their native country of Ukraine.
In a September 8, 2001 letter to the Ukrainian authorities, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said a judge awarded Quintana sole custody of Alexander for his wife’s “alcohol abuse.” The public prosecutor’s office then filed a criminal complaint against Aslanova for child abduction.
Last fall, Quintana traveled to Mariupol, where Aslanova and Alexander stayed with their parents. He said the couple tried to give Alexander some semblance of normalcy with family outings in Ukraine.
Quintana’s mother, Florencia Gómez, wanted to see her grandson and also traveled to Ukraine.
“I couldn’t wait to see my grandchild again,” Gómez said. Her nickname for Alexander is “Torito” because he is a Taurus. She left a short time later, thinking her son and Alexander would soon follow.
Meanwhile, tensions in the region escalated as Russian troops massed on the border with Ukraine.
During his visit, Quintana said he tried to flee Ukraine with Alexander. He said he has a court order from a California judge showing he has custody.
But Mariupol police were informed by Aslanova’s family that Quintana had kidnapped his son and had no permission to leave the country, Quintana said.
“Then they took our passports,” he said. Quintana had to wait for a new passport to be issued, but in the meantime police threatened to arrest him so he could return Alexander to his mother-in-law, he said.
Quintana went back to California, but he said he promised himself he would return for his son.
A few months later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then, civilian casualties have increased as the Russian army bombed Mariupol and other eastern cities in the Donbass region. Quintana said he plans to return to Ukraine via Poland in March with a relief group to locate Aslanova and Alexander.
But before he started his trip, Quintana said the State Department told him his wife and child had fled to Russia.
Quintana said he hasn’t had a chance to speak to Aslanova recently, but the two texted each other once after arriving in Russia. He said he was relieved that Alexander was no longer in Ukraine as the war raged on, but worried about his future in Russia.
“To think if he’s in Ukraine, to wonder if he’s alive, and then that he’s in Russia,” Quintana said. “This is bittersweet news.”
Aslanova told the Washington Post that she and Alexander spent the first days of the Russian invasion in a basement in Mariupol before deciding to flee to Russia. Aslanova told the newspaper Quintana gave her permission to take Alexander, a claim he denies.
Aslanova did not respond to an email inquiry from The Times.
Gómez gets worried when she hears about Ukraine or Russia in the news. But all she can do now is forgive her daughter-in-law for taking Alexander with her.
“I want to stay in a state of love and hope that he will be here,” Gómez said.
Quintana said the international custody battle has been made even more difficult by the war. Ukraine recognizes the international agreement known as the Hague Convention on the Child Aspect of International Abduction, which establishes procedures for returning a child to his or her country of habitual residence.
But the Foreign Ministry in the Netherlands announced last month that it could no longer guarantee Ukraine’s obligations under the treaty because of the war.
Quintana had a better chance of getting Alexander out of Ukraine, but now that he’s in Russia it could be near impossible, said California attorney David Lederman, who handles custody cases under the Hague Convention.
“In Russia, you have a country that is not a treaty member,” Lederman said. “You roll the dice. I don’t know the Russian laws, but you would look at the domestic Russian law on whether or not there should be a return of the child.
It doesn’t matter if Quintana has a court order from a California judge; such orders are not competent abroad, said Lederman.
Gómez worries that her son is trying to go to Russia to try to regain custody of Alexander. He showed her the video of the Russian soldier with his passport.
“Sometimes when something like this happens, you already have negative thoughts, and I was like, ‘Thank God he’s here,'” she said of her son. “Imagine if he had been to Ukraine [during the invasion]. Thank God he was here in California.”
But Quintana refuses to give up hope and continues to look for ways to bring his son back to the United States
“That’s all I think about,” he said. “I’m just thinking about bringing my son home.”
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