(NewsNation) — A man who was escorted off a bus by Russian forces in Crimea and held for 10 days has been released, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., announced.

Tyler Jacob was teaching English in Ukraine when the war began. He boarded a bus to Turkey, but he was taken off at a checkpoint in Crimea on March 12.

“I am so ecstatic that Tyler is safe. 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,” Tyler’s mother, Tina Hauser, said in a statement.

Hauser told NewsNation it was devastating to see what was happening in Ukraine because she knew how much Jacob liked living there.

“It’s devastating because he sent me videos when he could of what was happening in the distance and it’s like, your home is gone. Your life is changing,” she said through tears on “NewsNation Prime” on March 16. “And it’s so hard to see him suffer through that because it’s where he wanted to be.”