Prayers and despair in U.S.
The Rev. Myron Myronyuk stayed up all night at home in Pennsylvania as his twin brother tried to flee Kyiv, only to turn back because the road out was choked with traffic. His in-laws, also in Ukraine, told him they couldn’t get basics like bread and milk.
There was little Myronyuk could do but pray that his loved ones would survive the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A sense of helplessness overcame Ukrainians in America as the war unfolded half a world away, with little chance their loved ones in Ukraine would find refuge in the U.S. any time soon. For now, they are trying to donate money and supplies, desperately seeking advice from immigration attorneys about how to get family here and pleading for world leaders to intervene more forcefully.
“I say, ‘We’re praying for you, we wish you to be safe, go to a safe place,’” said Myronyuk, pastor of St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church in Scranton, Pa. “We have to continue to pray and ask God for help, but there’s not much else we can do here.”
At Ukrainian Village Food & Deli in the Cleveland suburb of Parma Heights, Mila Radeva, 39, said her father — who lives near the Ukrainian port city of Odessa — had taken shelter in his basement as explosions rocked the area.
“A lot of people are going to die,” said a worried Radeva, who emigrated to the U.S. 20 years ago. Asked if her father and other relatives might flee, she said: “There’s no place for them to run.”
Ekaterina Mouratova, a Miami immigration attorney, said Thursday was “a crazy day,” with phone calls and emails from Ukrainians and Russians seeking refuge in the United States. Ukrainians hope to flee Russian troops, while Russians worry they may get drafted and have bank accounts frozen.
She offered little encouragement, predicting Poland would be a far more realistic possibility for escape.
“There is no effective legal mechanism to bring people here,” she said.
Ukrainians could fly to Mexico from Europe as tourists, and enter the U.S. by land to claim asylum, as a growing number of Russians have done over the last year, Mouratova said.
Ukrainians could also be eligible for refugee resettlement but processing has been slow as U.S. authorities focus on Afghans seeking to flee Taliban rule.
Immigration advocates urged the Biden administration to grant Temporary Protected Status to Ukraine, a form of reprieve for its citizens already in the U.S.
Oksana Bilobran, an attorney in Seattle’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, came to the U.S. from Ukraine 17 years ago. She and others have been urging elected officials to do more to support Ukraine, including securing a no-fly zone over the country and providing humanitarian protection for Ukrainians currently in the U.S. so they don’t have to return.
They are also working on ways to support Ukraine financially, since apps like Venmo and PayPal aren’t readily available there.