Ukrainian refugees are uncertain about their legal status in the US

Vladyslav Orlov, the youngest amputee in Ukraine, who lost his foot in a car during the February 24 shooting spree

A national guard officer in Ukraine, who didn’t know what hit him but knew the car he was in wouldn’t make it, lost control and rolled over. He suspected Russian gun fire.

The driver, who had lost his feet and his legs in the blast, was pinned in the back of the vehicle, and it was hard for him to get out. Once he finally did, he and his team laid in the nearby grass watching the flames and figuring out their next steps, in disbelief they had survived.

February 24 will mark a year since Russia launched its war on Ukraine – and ahead lies what is widely expected to be a brutal spring of fighting. According to the United Nations, more than 18,000 Ukrainian civilians and thousands of troops have lost their lives. The fighting and shelling has destroyed the infrastructure in over a hundred cities and towns.

Orlov was brought to a Ukrainian hospital. He was told he may need to have at least one leg amputated or that he may never walk again, in part due to inundated hospitals and strains on resources after months of war.

There are a lot of wounded men. Orlov told CNN. The doctors and everyone else are working hard, but there is no free space. In limited English, he said there wasn’t enough medicine because it was war.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/17/us/vladyslav-orlov-ukraine-amputee/index.html

Gary Wasserson and the War in Ukraine: A Memorandum to a U.S. Businessman who Traveled to Europe and Aided Orov

That video caught the attention of some US volunteers and eventually made its way to Gary Wasserson, a retired American businessman from New York who was already coordinating volunteer aid resources to the region.

Matkowsky worked with the Ukrainian government to get permission for Orlov to leave, and helped arrange transportation to Poland. From there, Wasserson was able to get them plane tickets to New York.

Dr. Duretti Fufa is an orthodontist who is helping with Orov’s care. The hospital’s charity care program pays for his surgical costs, a representative said.

Fufa told CNN that he had wounds from the blast and injuries to his feet as well as missing bone.

I warned him that this was such a long road that I am not sure if he will be able to continue with it.

He hopes he can walk again, but his bigger dream is for his country, and he wants the world to know that.

This is “not just about war in Ukraine and Russia,” he said of the women and children’s lives that have been lost or upended by the fighting. The issue of human rights is at the center of it.

Anna Yezerova, a Ukrainian national, arrived in the United States last year with her young daughter and a couple of months of summer clothes. Their hope: that the war in Ukraine would be over soon.

Nearly one year later, Yezerova remains in the US and is setting down roots in New Jersey, trying to chart out a life she never envisioned for herself.

Biden’s visit to Poland during the Ukraine invasion brings with a lot of uncertainty and uncertainty: How many million Ukrainians will you need to resettle?

President Joe Biden’s visit to Poland this week is expected to again put into sharp focus the Ukrainian refugee crisis and the need for humanitarian support in addition to security assistance. Poland was among the countries that took in millions of refugees as Russia invaded Ukraine.

Over 213,000 people have agreed to support Ukrainians since the program was launched in the US, according to the Department of Homeland Security. There are more than 113,000 individuals who are part of the program and around 146,000 Ukrainians who are permitted to book their own travel.

In an interview with CNN, Mitina described, through an interpreter, hiding in a basement with her family during the invasion and going 10 days without food, electricity or water. Eventually, she was connected with a family in the US, who was hoping to sponsor Ukrainians.

With help from the family and the humanitarian group International Rescue Committee, Mitina arrived in Kansas last July and now works for the state’s Department of Children and Families.

Many of our clients are afraid of what the future will bring. It’s a situation of all the hallmarks of a protracted conflict and one that makes returning safely all but impossible,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, a refugee resettlement organization.

It is creating a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. And it makes it virtually impossible to set down roots with any sort of confidence,” she added.