Gov. Mike DeWine has insisted Ohio is ready and even eager to welcome Ukrainians into its communities as Ohio’s newest U.S. Senator, Republican J.D. Vance, is sending a very different message.
The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
At the third-floor offices of U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Anna Messerly helps guide new arrivals through applications for support services and work authorization. Messerly left Ukraine in 2014, and many staffers are new arrivals themselves. Ivan Prodanyk and Viktor Ordin both fled violence in Ukraine and found work here helping others in a similar situation.
Despite those mixed messages, the people sheltering in the U.S. feel welcome, if not entirely comfortable. They’re grateful for the support, particularly in a community with such deep Ukrainian roots. But it’s still not home. For many, the simplest parts of the day — going to work, getting groceries — feel unfamiliar and complicated, as if they’re constantly working left-handed.The past year has been an odyssey for Oksana Donobros.
That’s how Dobronos wound up running the museum gift shop — ordering souvenirs and pysanky egg kits for the Easter bazaar while trying not to fret about her husband and sons. She has shelter, a job, and a car to get around, but the stress is written on her face and rattles her voice.“I realize that there is dangers, but as well I want to keep my family together with our husband,” she said, explaining her return to Sumy.
“Something like that,” Turko said, holding out a black and white poster of a woman screaming and holding what appears to be lifeless body. “It’s about death,” she added. Unfolding a broadsheet copy of a newspaper, Turko pointed to famine-era headlines saying Russia should be put on trial. “Biden say about new program, and we sit down in the house, and think maybe we need to go to U.S.A because we have two kids,” Taras explained.
They’re currently renting a house that they share with Marta’s parents and younger sister. Marta’s brother is serving in the Ukrainian military, and her younger sister played a big role in convincing their parents to come to the U.S. The family can stay in the U.S. until June of next year, and they’re not thinking yet about what comes next. They’re definitely not planning to return with two young kids in tow while the war continues. And even once fighting ends, they’re not going to rush back.
“I said, maybe they forgot to take their pills,” Andrew recalled, “And he said, ‘That’s a really kind assumption.’ Then he asked the next girl and she said, ‘Oh, that’s drug overdose,’ and I was like, Oh, right. That’s what it is.”
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