‘For now, we are safe’
Blumenthal meets with Ukrainian refugees, says many remain in limbo
NEW HAVEN — As the United States gears up to accept a wave of Ukrainian refugees under a new streamlined humanitarian parole program, around ten such refugees listened to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal advocate for increased American aid during an Easter luncheon at New Haven’s St. Michael Ukrainian Church.
Blumenthal has been a proponent of boosting federal military and humanitarian aid as an embattled Ukraine faces a Russian invasion that has left hundreds of thousands of citizens displaced from the region.
On Sunday during the church’s Easter luncheon, Blumenthal vowed to continue pushing for that aid in Congress, while welcoming four Ukrainian refugee families who have recently moved into host homes in the state.
“Sometimes all these world problems seem so big and far away,” Blumenthal said. “But we should use our freedom of speech, our democracy, all of our rights to tell the American people we should open our arms and hearts to .... everyone who is seeking freedom.”
During his remarks, Blumenthal made a renewed push for the U.S. to send war weaponry to Ukraine, including arms, munitions and missiles, he said.
He also voiced support for a new bill making its way through Congress that would speed up a
process that allows the U.S. to sell assets seized from Russian oligarchs and use the money to help Ukraine.
But much of the focus on Sunday was not on Congressional measures but on the people affected most by the invasion.
Blumenthal’s remarks come as the Biden administration recently announced a new streamlined process called Uniting for Ukraine that officials say will provide up to 100,000 Ukrainian citizens with a path to the U.S.
Simon Bobrovskii, 29 and Daria Sakhniuk, 27, are two refugees whose arrival in the United States fell right before the program was announced — they were granted temporary residency on April 16, just days before the Biden administration announced the streamlined process.
Sitting at lunch on Sunday, they said their own journey was filled with legal hurdles that kept them in limbo for weeks before then, unsure of whether or not they would make it into the country.
Bobrovskii and Sakhniuk are married and resided in Ukraine before fighting broke out, but because Bobrovskii is originally
from Russia, the process became much more complicated, they said. Multiple attempts to secure temporary residency were thwarted.
The pair then came into contact with Dana Bucin, an immigration attorney based in Hartford. She put in a request to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who sped the process along for Bobrovskii and Sakhniuk after weeks of delays, Bucin said.
“For now, we are safe,” Bobrovskii said, adding that they live with a host family in Cromwell. “We are very grateful for that.”
But, he said, they and many other Ukrainian refugees in the U.S. are still in limbo. Under the humanitarian parole process, they cannot work or have driver’s licenses or they face deportation.
Bobrovskii and Sakhniuk want to be able to work to support themselves and send help back to Ukraine, they said.
“We just want to be self-sufficient,” Bobrovskii said. “It would be great if the American government could change the procedure for Ukrainian refugees .... we want to start helping ourselves with money, donations, whatever we can do to help. We’re ready.”