‘We just want to be safe’: Once welcomed in US, Ukrainians now in limbo as humanitarian policy shifts under Trump

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Nikita Demydov and his wife Alina and daughter Darina, 7, at their apartment in San Diego, California, on March 20, 2025. With Russian troops ravaging their native Kharkiv, Nikita Demydov and his wife Alina were offered a way out when the United States welcomed them and their five-year-old daughter as part of a humanitarian programme. But that welcome is now being withdrawn under President Donald Trump, whose administration has suspended ‘Uniting for Ukraine,’ which allowed more than 200,000 Ukrainians to legally settle in the country. — AFP pic

SAN DIEGO, March 27 — With Russian troops ravaging their native Kharkiv, Nikita Demydov and his wife Alina were offered a way out when the United States welcomed them and their five-year-old daughter as part of a humanitarian programme.

But that welcome is now being withdrawn under President Donald Trump, whose administration has suspended “Uniting for Ukraine,” which allowed more than 200,000 Ukrainians to legally reside in the country.

“We have IDs, a Social Security number, a work permit,” said Demydov, 39, who has put down roots and started several small construction businesses in San Diego.

“If the new government cancels it, we’ll lose everything again, one more time, and start from scratch again.”

The humanitarian programme was begun under then-president Joe Biden in April 2022 to offer safety to some of the thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian advance.

Many of them had found their way to the US southern border, joining desperate people from Central and Southern America seeking asylum in the US.

Biden also established admission programmes for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

But almost as soon as Trump took power, he began making good on his promise to shut the border and drastically reduce migration.

Ester Miroshnychenko stands for a portrait in La Jolla, California on March 20, 2025. — AFP pic

‘What for?’

The programmes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans have been terminated, while that for Ukrainians has been paused.

That stoppage has left tens of thousands of Ukrainians in limbo and in fear.

“This programme gave Ukrainians the chance for stability,” said Ester Miroshnychenko, an 18-year-old high school student who moved to the United States with her parents and eight siblings in 2022.

“If I have to leave everything, it’s gonna be really hard for me. It’s gonna be like everything that I achieved is gonna be destroyed,” said Miroshnychenko, who didn’t speak English when she arrived in the United States.

“I would say to them... think about actual people who worked hard, who left everything behind, and they still find motivation to continue even after war.

“Taking away those opportunities... for what?”

Demydov says the winds of anti-migrant intolerance blowing from Washington are completely out of step with his daily experience in a country where he has always felt welcomed.

“You will not see it from the regular people,” he said.

“American people are happy to have us here. But at the highest level... I’m a little bit... not even confused. I’m scared.”

Vlad Fedoryshyn stands for a portrait in Oceanside, California, on March 20, 2025. — AFP pic

‘Just want to be safe’

Vlad Fedoryshyn, who settled in the United States in 2020 and became a liaison and supporter for Ukrainians who arrived under the humanitarian programme, receives between 20 and 30 calls a day from people fretting about what will happen to them.

Many are beginning to see the impact of the programme’s pause, with their work permits and other applications paralysed.

“People are very worried,” he said.

“When you hear from the government that, hey, we’re not going to have (this) programme for you anymore... what does that mean?” asked Fedoryshyn, who works for a mailing company.

“It was super hard for them to rent an apartment, to find a job, to just establish their life here,” he added. “And when this thing happened, they don’t know what’s going to happen with their parole, they start feeling unsafe.”

Fedoryshyn, 26, believes the Trump administration does not really understand what is happening on the ground in Ukraine, where civilians come under frequent attack from invading Russian forces.

The sudden about-face in US policy towards his country is upsetting and disorientating.

“We are a small country,” said Fedoryshyn, who learned in textbooks that the United States and other European countries were allies and protectors of Ukraine.

For him, seeing Trump rebuke President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last month was very difficult to swallow.

“We were always relying on this protection. And right now, when Trump was talking to the President like that... I almost was crying.”

Fedoryshyn says he finds it difficult to believe that other countries, which opened their doors to Ukrainians at the beginning of the war, will want to welcome more migrants.

But returning is almost impossible.

“Are you going to want to go back to Ukraine, where the war continues, where missiles could fall or a drone could hit your house any day?” he said. “They just want to be safe.” — AFP