Ukrainians in D.C. lobby for aid while attempting to evacuate their families back home
WASHINGTON — Luda Draganova woke up on March 23 ready to evacuate her 86-year-old mother from her apartment in Kyiv.
Her mother had suddenly developed a sharp pain in her back, 10 days before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Three days into the war, the pain had gotten so intense that Draganova tried calling for an ambulance but was told emergency services would respond only to serious injuries.
Days later, her mother developed a strong cough and fever. Draganova believes she contracted COVID-19 from a neighbor who was checking on her.
Draganova — who was born in Kyiv when the Ukrainian capital was still part of the U.S.S.R. and who now lives in Reston, Va. — had planned for her mother to take a train to Poland, where she would be taken to Denmark by Draganova’s son, who is completing his PhD there.
The plan, which had been methodically devised for weeks since the invasion, fell apart when her mother “categorically refused” to leave that morning, citing extreme pain. Draganova had to abandon the plan.
“It's very hard to listen to her and to feel her pain but at the same time try to help her make the right decision,” Draganova told Yahoo News. She said the situation has since become even harder, given that “the majority of her [mother’s] friends and some other relatives that we could have relied on for her trip have already escaped.”
Draganova said the plan is still on hold, given that her mother fell on April 5, sustaining a femoral neck fracture.
Draganova is just one of many Ukrainian Americans trying to evacuate their families from their native country as they watch the war unfold from thousands of miles away, often with a mix of guilt and fear.
Oleksandra Ustinova, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and the leader of the liberal Holos Party, has been stuck in the United States for weeks, after going there with some weeks left before her due date to give birth on April 12.
Ten days before the war started, she flew to Austin, Texas, to visit her husband, who is also Ukrainian, and who works for a company based in the city.
While in the U.S., Ustinova had hoped to reconnect with some contacts in Washington, D.C., and to lobby on Capitol Hill to raise awareness of Russia’s impending attack. After the invasion, she was too close to giving birth to fly, and was effectively stuck in the U.S.
Living in a friend’s apartment in the Brookland neighborhood of D.C., Ustinova used every day to lobby on Capitol Hill for more U.S. military assistance and a U.S.-imposed no-fly zone over Ukraine.
She has met with an estimated 50 members of Congress, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. On Feb. 28, she met with members of the House of Representatives to discuss humanitarian aid, the possibility of a no-fly zone and direct actions targeting the finances of Russian oligarchs.
“We were talking about specific needs for our country” in the meeting with the bipartisan Congressional Ukraine Caucus, she told Yahoo News. “These can be divided into financial needs — which means we need sanctions, and we need personal sanctions against Putin and his close allies and their families.”
On the first day of the war, Ustinova sent both her mother and her mother-in-law to Vinnytsia, a city located 270 miles southwest of Kyiv. After Vinnytsia was shelled on March 6, she moved them to Slovakia.
Ustinova said that now that things appear to be improving and after Russian forces, faced with fierce resistance, started pulling back from the assault on Kyiv on April 4, the family intends to go back to Vinnytsia and decide what to do next.
She said the devastation is so widespread that most families in Ukraine know someone who has lost either a friend or a family member. “Every night, I'm afraid to open Facebook, because there's always someone that I know who was killed or shot or shelled,” she said.
Ustinova said that for her as a new mother, the Russian bombings targeting maternity hospitals have struck a nerve. “When I see all this happening, I understand how lucky I am,” she said. “To be honest, I feel guilty for this at some point, because I should be there, but I'm trying to make the best out of being here.”
Draganova said the war and the destruction it has brought will fundamentally change the lives of Ukrainians abroad for years to come.
“Our life, in terms of our everyday life, is like: before the war and after the war. Even though we have a life here [in the U.S.], it is still before the war and after the war,” Draganova said.
She said her life now revolves around the news. “I cannot imagine going to a theater or watching a movie or watching something entertaining. After dinner every day with my husband, now we watch news feeds, videos, analysis and things like that.”
Since the beginning of the war, the Biden administration has pledged support for Ukraine. In a March 24 background press call on President Biden’s meetings with the G7 and the European Council, a senior administration official announced that the U.S. will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russia.
“To meet this commitment, we are considering the full range of legal pathways to the United States. So that includes the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, parole, and immigrant and non-immigrant visas,” the senior administration official said.
In addition to taking in more refugees, Biden announced on March 30 that the U.S. will give Ukraine $500 million in budget assistance.
Despite the call for a no-fly zone that Draganova backed with other activists, press secretary Jen Psaki said on Feb. 28 that the administration would not grant one, since it would have to be carried out with the U.S. military and would represent an escalation of the conflict.
“It would essentially mean the U.S. military would be shooting down planes, Russian planes. That is definitely escalatory and would potentially put us in a place in a military conflict with Russia,” Psaki said.
Despite this, Draganova remains hopeful that Ukraine will prevail against its larger, better-armed neighbor, saying, “It's inevitable for Ukraine to prevail in some way.”
“I believe the help that we are getting from the whole world, especially the military assistance, will help us to just regain the territory and defeat the enemy,” she said.
In the meantime, Draganova has been active with a local group in Washington, D.C., called US Ukrainian Activists.
The volunteer organization holds daily rallies near the White House to raise awareness as well as money for those in Ukraine. So far, it has gathered almost $100,000 for frontline paramedics’ medical supplies and humanitarian aid.
As the war drags on, experts say the end is hard to predict. Robert Orttung, a research professor of international affairs at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, said the war will have lasting repercussions, given the death and destruction Russian forces have inflicted on Ukraine.
As Ustinova works the congressional offices, she said, her message to the American people is to pressure their government to act, adding, “This is the only thing that works.”
“Please, I’m begging you, go out on the street protesting, because if you do not go out on the streets protesting that your government is doing nothing, our children will never get out of those bomb shelters,” she said.
Draganova said that while the humanitarian help is greatly appreciated, military assistance is urgently called for.
“We are asking for those fighter jets,” she said.
