Kyiv
Volodymyr Dudnyk was picked up by Ukrainian military draft officers nearly instantly after crossing the border into Ukraine following his deportation from the United States. He was sent straight to a coaching middle.
“When I was on the plane to Ukraine, I knew what was coming. But I hoped that perhaps they’d at least let me go home first. Everything happened even faster than I’d thought. I never made it home; I haven’t seen my parents yet,” the 28-year-old informed NCS.
Dudnyk spent 51 days in boot camp, then a number of weeks coaching as a drone operator. He is now preventing on the frontline in jap Ukraine, the place his fellow troopers gave him a brand new military callsign: “America.”
In President Donald Trump’s second time period, the United States has cracked down on each kind of immigration and launched into a mass deportation marketing campaign. While the Trump administration says it’s targeted totally on main criminals that it calls “the worst of the worst,” many of these detained have dedicated solely minor offenses or have no criminal records.
This has introduced deep uncertainty to the lives of lots of of 1000’s of people who find themselves now in danger of being faraway from the US. But for Ukrainian men of preventing age, there may be an added danger. Deportation could lead on straight to the entrance traces.
More than 4 years of battle have left Ukraine’s military fighting critical manpower shortages. Under Ukrainian regulation, all men between the ages of 25 and 60 are subject to mobilization. According to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, some 2 million are at present “wanted” for avoiding the draft and about 200,000 soldiers are absent with out official depart.
Many of these men have both fled the country or are attempting to disguise from draft officers who’re always searching for evaders. NCS has witnessed firsthand draft officers conducting random doc checks and taking anybody and not using a legitimate exemption straight to military coaching grounds.
A planeload of military-age men being deported from the US is low-hanging fruit for the draft officers.
Dudnyk, a tattoo artist, was one of 45 Ukrainian men who were deported from the US by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on November 17, alongside 5 ladies.
The group was flown to Poland and transported to the Ukrainian border by US officers who then handed them over to Polish officers who escorted them throughout the border. One of the individuals on the flight mentioned they were handcuffed till after crossing the border.
The State Border Service of Ukraine informed NCS that of the 45 men, 24 were “wanted” for the draft and were handed to law enforcement officials who then took them to the military draft workplace. In Ukraine, “wanted” standing applies to those that have failed to replace their knowledge or who have violated mobilization guidelines.
“A man who was on the plane with me had two or three children, and he was deported too. Another was a 36-year-old who came to America as a child 20 years ago. He hardly speaks any Ukrainian. He was deported too,” Dudnyk mentioned.
Dudnyk was picked up by ICE officers final August in entrance of a courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the place he was due to attend a listening to for allegedly driving and not using a license and automobile insurance coverage. He acknowledged this wasn’t his first time stepping into bother in the US; he was in the previous charged with offenses together with driving underneath the affect, assault and housebreaking, he informed NCS. Court paperwork present that he was solely ever discovered responsible or pleaded responsible to site visitors offenses and one rely of disorderly conduct. All different prices were both dropped or dismissed in court docket.
On that scorching August day, issues were totally different. “They got out of the car; they already had my photo. … I never even saw the judge, as I was sent straight to detention. Even though I had official status there,” he mentioned, including that he had entered the US legally in 2019 on an change visa. He then obtained pupil visa, which was ultimately canceled as a result of, the US Department of Homeland Security informed NCS, Dudnyk “failed to attend school.”
Dudnyk utilized for asylum and was given permission to work whereas his case was pending. NCS has seen paperwork confirming his work allow and the incontrovertible fact that his asylum software had been acquired and was into consideration.
Asked by NCS for touch upon his case, a DHS spokesperson mentioned Dudnyk was a “criminal illegal alien from Ukraine” who had stayed in the US after his visa was canceled. “He received full due process,” the spokesperson added.
Dudnyk is one of many asylum candidates from a number of nations that the Trump administration has deported.
Ukrainian couple Daryna and Zhenya, who requested NCS not to use their final names for worry of retribution, mentioned they’d entered the US legally in 2022 underneath the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) program.
That Joe Biden-era scheme allowed personal US residents to sponsor Ukrainians who had fled their nation as a result of of the battle and wished to come to the US. They were given two years of humanitarian parole, permitting them to dwell and work in the US. After the preliminary two years were up, individuals may apply for an extension, often called re-parole.
When Daryna and Zhenya utilized for re-parole in 2024, Daryna received hers nearly instantly. But her husband didn’t. Instead, his software remained “pending” for greater than a yr – till he was arrested by ICE in November.
Julia Bikbova, an American-Ukrainian lawyer specializing in immigration and worldwide regulation, mentioned that this situation – through which some members of a household are granted re-parole whereas others aren’t – will not be distinctive.
Daryna informed NCS the couple was making an attempt to struggle Zhenya’s deportation by arguing that he entered the US legally and nonetheless wanted the nation’s safety. Daryna mentioned she was notably anxious that Zhenya, who’s 34 – prime sign-up age from the level of view of Ukrainian draft officers – could possibly be sent to struggle on the frontlines regardless of having well being points. She mentioned he has issues together with his backbone.
“The situation in Ukraine right now is that they are conscripting men even with the most severe disabilities,” she informed NCS.
Her worries aren’t unfounded. Anton Smovzh, who was on the identical deportation flight as Dudnyk and was equally sent to a military coaching middle straight after crossing the border from Poland, mentioned the draft officers took everybody with “wanted” standing, regardless of their state of affairs.
“In the medical exam, they took my blood in three minutes and said I was fit for service,” he informed NCS in Kyiv, the place he’s at present protecting a low profile after escaping from the military.
Smovzh, 34, informed NCS that when he was deported from the US, his spouse – additionally from Ukraine – and their son were successfully compelled to depart as effectively. “My son is an American citizen, and de facto, he was deported too, because my wife cannot work with a small child, so they had to leave,” he informed NCS.
Like Daryna and Zhenya, Smovzh entered Ukraine underneath the U4U program. He was detained and deported by ICE after being charged with rape and sexual assault – regardless that all prices in opposition to him were withdrawn shortly earlier than his deportation, court docket paperwork present. It will not be clear from the paperwork why the prices were withdrawn – the Philadelphia Police Department informed NCS it can not touch upon instances that have been dismissed and the district lawyer’s workplace didn’t reply to repeated requests for data. Speaking to NCS, Smovzh vehemently denied the allegations in opposition to him.
According to DHS, Zhenya agreed to depart the US voluntarily on March 15. NCS has not been ready to attain him or Daryna since then.
An estimated 280,000 Ukrainians entered the US underneath the U4U scheme earlier than it was suspended in January 2025, alongside all different categorical humanitarian parole packages, as Trump took workplace.
The humanitarian parole system permits an individual who would usually not be allowed to enter the US to request entry “based on urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit.”
This could possibly be to obtain life-saving medical remedy or go to a member of the family with a critical sickness, to act as a witness in an vital trial or to escape imminent hazard. The granting of humanitarian parole is discretionary and receiving it doesn’t give the parolee any authorized immigration standing. It is meant to be a short-term answer for an acute disaster.
“There was an expectation that the war would end and (the people who entered on U4U) would go back. The program was not designed to lead to a permanent residency or visa. It was meant to allow Ukrainians to sit out the war,” Bikbova mentioned. But as a substitute, the battle has now entered its fifth yr.
Officially, the U4U program has not been scrapped underneath the Trump administration. Instead, as half of Trump’s immigration crackdown, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a DHS company, introduced it could cease accepting new functions and mentioned that particular person renewal requests can be granted solely in the case of “continued urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”
“On paper, the protections for Ukrainians are still in place… but right now, ICE has the sweeping authority to pick up anybody,” Bikbova mentioned, pointing to current instances the place federal regulation enforcement officers have arrested everlasting residents and even US citizens.
The Trump administration additionally launched a brand new $1,000 payment to be paid as soon as re-parole is granted, on high of the practically $600 software payment – quantities Bikbova mentioned could possibly be prohibitive.
A DHS spokesperson laid duty for the Trump administration’s deportations of Ukrainians to a rustic nonetheless at battle at the door of the earlier authorities.
“The Biden administration did a profound disservice to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russian invasion by exploiting humanitarian parole authority in ways it was never intended, turning a narrow, case-by-case emergency tool into a mass-admission program that left these vulnerable people in a precarious, temporary limbo with no path to lasting security,” the spokesperson mentioned.
Ruslan, 26, informed NCS he was detained throughout a site visitors cease and was not conscious of having completed something mistaken. “They just pulled up behind me and asked for my documents. I gave them my driver’s license, and they asked for my passport, which I had left at home. They said I was illegal, handcuffed me and took me to jail. And that was it. No one asked me anything,” he mentioned.
Through his girlfriend, Ruslan shortly offered the authorities together with his paperwork – the parole, which was legitimate for 3 extra months, in addition to a piece allow. He requested NCS not to use his full identify for privateness causes.
“Everything as it should be. But that wasn’t enough… They cancelled my parole and all my documents that allowed me to stay in America,” he mentioned, talking to NCS from Poland.
The DHS spokesperson informed NCS that Ruslan was “an illegal alien from Ukraine” who had entered the US in 2024 and was granted parole.
“Parole or a pending application does not grant a legal status,” the spokesperson mentioned. According to the regulation, the DHS has the proper to revoke parole at any time and with out discover – and it did so in Ruslan’s case. No motive was given.
The Trump administration has gone even additional when it comes to parole packages for individuals from nations like Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, in search of to revoke them utterly. The Supreme Court sided with the administration on the problem in an emergency ruling final yr.
Ruslan mentioned he had determined in opposition to preventing deportation on his lawyer’s recommendation and, when he was given the possibility to depart the US voluntarily, he took it. Sitting in detention was proving pricey, as Ruslan couldn’t earn however nonetheless had to pay for the residence he was renting together with his Ukrainian associate Kateryna, additionally in the US on the U4U program. And by leaving voluntarily, he was ready to keep away from being sent to Ukraine, the place he can be drafted, he mentioned.
Kateryna mentioned the couple liked dwelling in New York. “I liked the ocean the most. I (worked at) a beauty salon in Brighton Beach and after work we always went to the ocean just to walk or drink coffee. We did this all the time. We sat on a bench or on the rocks by the ocean,” she mentioned.
“I keep thinking – if they wanted people to leave, they could have said, for example, ‘We don’t want you here, U4U is closing down and here’s the deadline for departure.’ Then people would have left normally, instead of facing all this.” Kateryna added that she felt fortunate they don’t have youngsters after seeing complete households uprooted by detentions and deportations.
“I spoke to someone who had two or three children, very young children. And the man was simply taken away, leaving them without an income, without anything,” she mentioned.
Smovzh was detained by ICE in June whereas out on bail over the prices of rape, sexual assault and indecent publicity that were later withdrawn.
{A photograph} exhibiting that second – Smovzh in handcuffs, flanked by masked officers – was revealed on the US Border Patrol’s official Instagram account. It inaccurately described him as being “wanted for rape, aggravated indecent assault, and reckless endangerment.” As of March, the {photograph} was nonetheless on-line. Smovzh was by no means convicted of any wrongdoing.
DHS informed NCS that Smovzh “received full due process.”
He informed NCS he was decided to return to the US, regardless that his deportation makes that possibility extraordinarily unlikely. “For me, it’s a matter of principle to return to the US. I believe that I did nothing to deserve being deported,” he mentioned.
“I’m not angry at Americans,” he added. “When I was in (detention) there were Ukrainians who had been in prison for 10 to 20 years. I understand why the country doesn’t want criminal immigrants. I wouldn’t want that either. But in my case, I was just unlucky.”
Dudnyk mentioned that when his household and associates discovered he was being deported to Ukraine, they steered that he, like Smovzh, ought to attempt to run away from the military.
But that was not an possibility he would contemplate.
“While travelling here, I saw so many graves of soldiers. It really got to me,” he informed NCS. “At that moment, I told myself that I wouldn’t go AWOL and would fight instead.”