Archbishop Borys Gudziak, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, has visited Ukraine 15 times since 2022. For the archbishop, the son of Ukrainian immigrants, each visit is an act of solidarity with the people of Ukraine amid the ongoing war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. His most recent visit took place in January, ahead of the fourth anniversary of the start of the war.
“In January 2022, when it became clear that a full-scale invasion was imminent, our church in the United States established a three-point plan of response,” he said in a statement to America. “To pray, to inform and advocate, and to organize assistance and partnerships with the church and the people in Ukraine.”
Four years into the war, when Russian attacks on the power grid in the middle of a brutal winter have caused suffering for millions, the needs are as urgent as ever. For Ukrainian refugees in the United States, uncertainty is the word of the day—over the fate of their friends and family back in Ukraine and over their future in their adopted home.
The Archeparchy of Philadelphia performs its humanitarian work in concert with the three other eparchies of the U.S. Ukrainian Catholic Metropolia it oversees. Formally called the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, it falls under papal jurisdiction but practices a liturgical rite in the Byzantine tradition.
Since the onset of the war, the American eparchies have organized collections to assist people in Ukraine and served as humanitarian hubs for local refugee communities in the United States. The Archeparchy of Philadelphia itself sponsors three local initiatives: a food pantry, a social outreach ministry for refugees and the Healing of Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund, which helps with humanitarian projects in the war-torn country.
Roman Oliynik is the parish priest at Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Melrose Park, Pa. Father Oliynik serves as the chief executive officer for the Healing of the Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund, which the four U.S. Ukrainian eparchies launched in 2024 to address the physical, mental and spiritual healing of those affected by the war.
The fund has distributed $2.3 million to 93 projects since its launch. Projects in Ukraine include counseling for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and housing and food for internally displaced persons. In the United States, the fund partners with the nonprofit U.S. Ambulances to Ukraine, helping the organization cover the expense of shipping the ambulances it collects from U.S. hospitals and donors around the country to Ukraine.
Father Oliynik speaks with obvious pride and affection about one project in particular, a three-week youth summer camp in the Carpathian mountains. Located in western Ukraine, it is among the safest regions in the country.
In the hotly contested city of Zaporizhzhia, Father Oliynik said many young people have been doing remote learning since the conflict began, meeting in person with teachers only once a month before returning to their apartments amid constant shelling outside.
“There’s no interaction,” he said. The need for this summer escape and a chance to socialize normally has grown acute. In the security and serenity of the mountains, with mental health professionals, counselors and clergy on site, “it’s a safe space,” Father Oliynik said. “Three weeks of safety with no sirens.”
But as the war drags on, he says, donor enthusiasm and giving are flagging. The Healing of the Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund raised just over $800,000 in 2025, down from over $2 million in 2024. “We have to really convince people why and what are the reasons [to give],” he said. “We still have to continue supporting Ukraine.”
For Catholics in Ukraine, there is a particular need for support.
Ukrainian erasure
Only around 10 percent of Ukraine is Catholic, and according to Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine, Russian troops have destroyed or damaged over 600 churches of various denominations in the country.
Archbishop Shevchuk told National Catholic Register in January that after a Russian campaign of arrest, deportation and torture, no Catholic priests remain in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian Catholic Church is wiped out every time there is Russian aggression,” Archbishop Gudziak said in his statement to America. “Current Russian government policy is explicit and repeatedly articulated: the annihilation of the Ukrainian state and nation, the negation of its culture and language, and the suppression of its religious, ethnic, social and political identity.”
Ukrainians recognize the pattern of erasure. Ukrainian cities like Kharkiv are among the sites from which Russian forces have abducted thousands of Ukrainian children for forced re-education and militarization. “Kharkiv was so pro-Russian in the past—10, 15 years ago,” Father Oliynik said. Now, he said, “They are not going back to the Soviets.”
Refugee status
Some 260,000 Ukrainian war refugees came to the United States under a 2022 Biden administration program, Uniting For Ukraine, which allowed them to live and work in the United States for an initial two-year period. Last year, after an executive order from President Trump halted the program, it was unclear whether beneficiaries would be able to reapply for an additional two years. The program resumed in August 2025, although U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is no longer accepting new applicants, and as of October, reapplicants must now pay a fee of $1,000.
Father Oliynik has put the word out at his parish, where he estimates some 40 members are refugees from Ukraine—mostly families with young children—that there is a need for volunteers to help translate documents for parishioners renewing their parole.
Teodora Kopyn, O.S.B.M., manages the archeparchy’s food pantry in Philadelphia, which she said serves a substantial clientele of Ukrainian refugees. “They cannot work anymore,” Sister Kopyn said.
She is reluctant to talk about their reactions to the impact of U.S. foreign policy or domestic politics on themselves or their families. Although she said she knows they are worried for their families back in Ukraine and about their own situations in the United States, Sister Kopyn said she tries to give Ukrainian refugees space so they can feel comfortable.
One thing she will say: “Everyone is looking forward to peace.”
Marta Rubel oversees the Philadelphia archeparchy’s social outreach efforts to refugees. Ms. Rubel is the daughter of Ukrainian refugees who fled the Soviet Union after World War II, and she remembers eerie similarities between the scenes from 2022 and stories from her late parents. “All of a sudden, everything that my mother would tell us materialized on a TV screen,” she said.
She describes the initial reaction among the Ukrainian refugee community to last year’s Uniting for Ukraine suspension as “sheer panic.” Although U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has resumed processing renewal applications, refugees whose reapplication process stalled last year when the program was suspended may still be awaiting renewal of their humanitarian parole status.
While they are still in the country legally while their applications are pending, it may not appear that way to an immigration official unfamiliar with the administrative nuances. Media accounts like that of Dmytro Kulyk, apprehended by ICE in a Walmart parking lot while his parole reapplication was evaluated, has generated worries among the Ukrainians in the United States.
“There is tremendous fear because even though you’re here legally and you carry your papers,” Ms. Rubel said, “there is fear that anybody can stop you at any given moment, anywhere you are and take you somewhere.”
Hope for peace
Although they have received a warm welcome in Pennsylvania, Ms. Rubel said a big obstacle she encounters is the American attention span and the pace of the news, when Ukraine is just one of many stories competing for coverage. “I encounter so many people that when I tell them what I do, it’s like, ‘Oh, is that still going on?’ But once I mention that yes, it still is, and what a harsh winter they had, people are extremely empathetic and still very giving and very comforting.”
Ms. Rubel said some refugees are opting to return to Ukraine, rather than try to renew their humanitarian parole when it expires. “They didn’t come here with the intent of staying forever,” she said. “They do want to go back. They’re looking at it as, ‘Well, this just speeds up that process. We’ll go back, and we’ll make do however we can make do.’”
Everyone who spoke to America who has visited in the past year described impressive resilience, ingenuity and at the same time exhaustion among the people who soldier on in Ukraine.
“We have seen too many miracles not to believe,” Archbishop Gudziak said. Remembering that even many foreign policy experts did not see the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union coming, he remains hopeful that a peaceful solution is possible:
People of faith cannot but recognize divine intervention—God’s providence. We have negligible power, no weapons and very few resources, but God is almighty. We beseech him to convert the hearts of the aggressors, to give wisdom and courage to global leaders to do God’s will, and to work miracles to protect his little people. God intervenes in history, and we pray that he do so now—to stop the aggressors and to preserve the dignity he has given to all people, especially the victims of the powerful.
Sister Teodora Kopyn offers a blueprint for Catholics who, like Archbishop Gudziak, hope for a miracle of peace. Rather than focusing on geopolitics, “I’m focusing on helping,” she said. “I know what I am doing.”
With no new support from Congress or the Trump administration, Ukraine relies on Europe
According to an analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations, since President Donald J. Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025, there has been no legislation or other authorizations of significant new aid to Ukraine, though “a substantial amount of the aid appropriated under the Biden administration is still in the pipeline, and deliveries of aid packages have continued.” Without new military or humanitarian aid initiatives from Congress, U.S. deliveries of weaponry and ammunition will begin to dwindle in early 2027 and sharply diminish in 2028, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Despite the suspension of American support, the total volume of aid allocated to Ukraine remained relatively stable in 2025 because of significantly expanded support from Europe, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research center. Its researchers report that European military aid rose by 67 percent from the 2022-2024 average, while non-military aid increased by 59 percent. Military aid is increasingly borne by only a small number of countries, while other financial aid now mainly comes from European Union institutions. Thirty-five countries sponsored major arms transfers to Ukraine from 2022 to 2024. Nearly all were wealthy democracies.
Source: The Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Original data given in euros, recalculated for U.S. dollars.
This article appears in April 2026.
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