Ukrainians arrive in Anchorage, with hundreds more expected in coming weeks – Alaska Public Media

Exhaustion and reduction have been written on the faces of arrivals of Condor flight 2050 Saturday morning as they walked into the foyer of the Ted Stevens Anchorage Worldwide Airport.

Members of the family and volunteers from the Ukraine Aid Program have been there to greet them with flowers and hugs. Twelve folks from Ukraine arrived over the weekend, and a whole lot extra are anticipated within the coming weeks due to the native nonprofit and a brand new federal program.  

Amongst these on Saturday’s nine-hour flight have been Mariia and Anton Bershytska and their three-year-old son, Iaroslav. They spent three months in Poland after fleeing their house in Bucha, exterior Kyiv, in February. 

“Our metropolis was destroyed by struggle, and many individuals died there and all infrastructure of Bucha was destroyed too. And it was terrible,” mentioned Mariia Bershytska.

Now they’ll stick with household right here in Anchorage thanks partly to the federal Uniting for Ukraine program, which permits Ukrainians sponsored by U.S. residents to come back for a two-year parole interval. 

“We’ll keep right here on this program throughout two years, and we hope that the peace in our Ukraine will likely be (restored) and we will (go) again there. We hope so,” mentioned Bershytska.

The United Nations estimates that greater than six million Ukrainians have been displaced since Russia invaded earlier this 12 months. That quantity will rise because the battle drags on. 

“It’s been kind of surreal at instances. I imply, it’s, as an American, it’s arduous to know,” mentioned Mike Robbins, the finance and outreach chair for the Ukraine Aid Program. Anton is his nephew. Robbins’ spouse is Ukrainian, and their household has been carefully following information of what’s occurring again house. 

The native nonprofit run by members of New Likelihood Christian Church obtained beneficiant monetary assist from the Rasmuson Basis and others, permitting them to buy airplane tickets for Ukrainians with family in Alaska. 

Robbins mentioned donations are welcome, but it surely’s not what they want most proper now. 

“What we actually want is individuals who wish to assist us sponsor them into the nation,” Robbins mentioned. “Then we assist with job placement, and the entire different issues that go together with coming.”

They hope to convey as much as a thousand folks to Alaska within the coming weeks and months. Anybody excited about turning into a sponsor can go to ukrainereliefprogram.com to be taught extra.