ATLANTA — Atlanta is home to dozens of Ukrainian families who fled here for safety, but soon their legal status may be in limbo.
Feb. 24, 2022, is a day Mariia Yatsko will never forget. Russia launched an attack on Ukraine, and a bomb hit her home.
“You see, all people are panicking. You hear the bombs, you hear the sirens,” Yatsko told Channel 2’s Michael Doudna. “You don’t understand what to do next. You don’t feel safe, you don’t know where to go.”
Yatsko is the head of a department with master’s degrees in economics and engineering. She fled her home with her family, documents, and two backpacks of clothes.
Her family got a lifeline for safety from a program known as United for Ukraine.
“I am very thankful to this country for giving us the chance to breathe again,” she said.
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Since then, Yatsko and her family have built a life from scratch and are now working to help others in similar situations.
But earlier this year, the United States paused the program, allowing for extensions to her legal status.
“After that, nobody knows what will happen,” Yatsko said.
Yael Schacher said it’s more than just Yatsko, but thousands of others who may have less than a year of legal status unless something is done.
“Your status is lapsed. You lose the ability to work to support your family,” Schacher said. “This is almost 250,000 to 300,000 Ukrainians like Maria, but also 100,000 people from other countries.”
Yatsko’s Ukrainian home is still a battlefield, so she has spent months advocating in Washington, DC, for legislation that will allow those like her to continue working and not lose another home.
“We deserve to know what our life will be next. We deserve it because we are already a part of this community,” Yatsko said. “Everything is changing every day. We are not protected.”,
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