Ohio state Rep. Sean Brennan, D-Parma, was driving across Poland’s border with Ukraine to deliver a couple dozen ambulances and medical supplies. The trip was part of Ukraine Focus’s 19th mission to Ukraine. The Virginia-based nonprofit sources and delivers ambulances, among other programs to support the war-torn country. The United Ukrainian Organizations of Ohio helped organize participants from Ohio. “We delivered around 50 ambulances, as I recall,” Brennan explained. “Along with other vehicles, along with humanitarian and medical supplies for the Ukrainian military to use in their war efforts to maintain their sovereignty, which they’re entitled to and deserve.” Brennan’s Parma-area district has the largest Ukrainian-American population in the state, and many Ukrainians sheltering in the U.S. while the war continues have settled in the area. Those families face an uncertain future. Roughly 100,000 Ukrainians are living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status – the same protections recently terminated for nearly 350,000 Haitians living in the U.S. Ukrainians’ TPS status lapsed on Oct. 19. But rather than formally extending or ending protections, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did nothing. In a terse statement, the agency said an announcement “will be made at the appropriate time,” and until then, TPS holders can maintain their work authorization. “They’ve put the people in limbo,” United Ukrainian Organizations of Ohio President George Jaskiw said. “Is this just a reprieve before the election and then after election the hammer will come down? That’s what somebody asked me,” he said. “I have no answer. I don’t know what’s in the mind of (Department of Homeland Security) administration.”
Volunteers, including George Jaskiw (second from left) and Ohio state Rep. Sean Brennan, D-Parma, (second from right) delivering ambulances in Ukraine. (Photo courtesy of Sean Brennan) The trip Brennan’s European sojourn started in Prague. He and several other volunteers (including Jaskiw) picked up ambulances and drove through Krakow in Poland, and then on to Lviv in Western Ukraine. Brennan was struck by the extent to which Ukrainians were carrying on with their lives despite four years of armed conflict. “Now that being said, there were signs of war,” Brennan said, “There were a couple of mornings where the air raid sirens went off, and we had to go down into the bunker of our hotel for our safety.” Security was tight at the border, he said, and they passed check points for several miles on their way to Lviv. After they arrived, the volunteers handed over the vehicles to members of the Ukrainian armed forces and toured a handful of the civilian efforts to support the war. “We got to sit down with them and tie some of the ties onto the nets that are used on the front to camouflage vehicles and other equipment from the drones,” Brennan described. “We also visited a place where they dry food. They dry fruits, vegetables, and meat to create (meals ready to eat) for soldiers on the front. That was pretty amazing.” But most surprising, he said, was a dilapidated Soviet-era building. “They took us into the building onto one of the floors,” Brennan described. “They opened up the door, and there were about I would say 100 3-D printers making items for drones.” “It was something out of a spy novel.”
