From war to uncertainty: Ukrainian students face an unclear future under Trump

MIAMI — Alexandr Mokryk, 13, recalls the Thursday morning Russia launched its full-scale military invasion on his home country.

“I was panicking, like ‘oh my God this is happening,’” said Alexandr.

Like many children across Ukraine, Alexandr packed his things - a charger, clothes, toiletries - into a small suitcase and got into the car with his mother and siblings. He left behind his dog, Bim, and his two cats, Lyly and Morka.

His then 13-year-old sister had never driven before, but she took the wheel to give her mom a moment to sleep. The family did not stop for three days except to put gas in their car. His mom, Yuliya Oliynyk, changed her 10-month-old baby’s diaper and mixed formula from behind the steering wheel.

The family eventually abandoned the car on the side of the road, and Oliynyk walked to the border in the cold with a few backpacks and her four children, including the baby in a stroller. “It’s not safe in there, this is the reason why we left,” said Alexandr.

Like many Ukrainians, Alexandr’s family found its way to South Florida where they began to build their new life.

Alexandr is one of the around 130 Ukrainian children enrolled in Miami-Dade public schools. The population has more than doubled since Russia’s invasion in February of 2022.

In the years since the war began, these students have faced challenges adjusting to their new lives. The students have struggled to learn English and make friends as they simultaneously work to cope with the trauma from the war.

Under President Trump’s administration, Ukrainian families in South Florida say they are now living with the added stress of not knowing how the new administration’s policies on immigration and foreign policy will impact them.

As policy stances shift constantly, families are left with a sense of unease and confusion that is confounded by the stress of adjusting to their new lives. At least 12,654 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since the war started, according to the United Nations, and many Ukrainians fear President Trump’s policies may make it hard for them to remain in the United States legally, and they also fear his promise of ending the war will not be fulfilled.

The president’s repeated public statements blaming Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for starting the war and Trump’s perceived alignment with Russia are part of this increasing sense of anxiety. Families who spoke to the Miami Herald say they want clear answers.

Oliynyk, Alexandr’s mother, feels powerless because of the uncertainty.

“Simple people like me, we pay taxes, we do not have any influence,” she said.

Parents feel a sense of anxiety

Tatiana Sakhnenko says she left Ukraine to spare her two daughters, Maria and Anna, from the trauma of the war.

Many children who stayed in Ukraine now attend school inside bomb shelters, and this is not something she wanted for her children.

The Sakhnenko family is in the United States as part of Uniting for Ukraine — a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services program created under former President Joe Biden’s administration to assist Ukrainians fleeing the war.

That program stopped accepting applications last month as part of an executive order signed by President Trump.

The program requires families to have a sponsor, and a family friend in New York who they had not spoken to in over a decade sponsored the Sakhnenko family.

Their status will end in July of 2026.

“We came here legally, do a good job, and pay taxes,” she said. “So why should he cancel this status? I don’t see the reason.”

Like many Ukrainians in South Florida and across the country, she was dismayed when she heard President Trump blame Zelenskyy for the war.

“That was really shocking,” she said.

Maria, Sakhnenko’s daughter, is now a student at Aventura Waterways. With time, Maria has adjusted to her new life in sunny Miami.

About 31 percent of all Ukrainian students in the Miami-Dade public school system attend Aventura Waterways K–8, near Aventura.

Of the five Ukrainian students interviewed at the school, each recalled the Thursday morning when they woke to learn that Russia had attacked their home country.

They recall arriving in the United States and being bullied for not knowing how to spell words in English. And they all miss aspects of their home country – the families, friends, pets, and foods they left behind. They miss the cold and the holiday feeling of playing in the snow around Christmas time.

They all have also watched the stress their parents operate under as they struggle to adapt to a new country and find jobs while watching the destruction back home.

Maria, 12, spoke no English when she came, but has made great improvements since arriving.

Her mom is proud of the progress her daughter has made, and three years into being in South Florida has been able to adjust to their new life. She’s not ready to consider a life back in Ukraine.

“I need to see my country independent and free and only after that can I think about going back,” said Sakhnenko.

Ukrainian students adjust to their new life

Arelys Morejon and Yanina Gurman, teachers at Aventura Waterways, have seen their Ukrainian students struggle to adjust to life in the United States.

Gurman, a kindergarten teacher, said she had a 5-year-old student in kindergarten tell her in Russian, “I am scared because of the bombs, the bombs,” whenever the school had a fire drill. That student had lived through the sirens and bombing in Ukraine, and the loud noise from the alarm would trigger those traumatic memories.

Inside Arelys Morejon’s English for Speakers of Other Languages or ESOL class at Aventura Waterways, more than a dozen students raised their hands when asked if they were from Ukraine or Russia.

Though the school has over three dozen Ukrainian students, none of the ESOL teachers speak Ukrainian or Russian, which students say is a challenge.

The district ensures students who speak Spanish or Haitian Creole have teachers who speak their home language, but it’s more difficult to find ESOL teachers who speak other languages especially given they are among the teachers in shortest supply. According to the Florida Department of Education, there’s a 4.48 percent vacancy rate for ESOL teachers, and schools are becoming increasingly dependent on teachers without a certification in the field.

Gurman is from Ukraine and has lived in the United States for over a decade. Since the influx of immigration from Russia and Ukraine, she has served as an unofficial translator at Aventura Waterways.

“All I do is just help them communicate with a specific issue, sometimes it is a child behavior,” said Gurman, of the moments she is called in to help translate and quell issues. Once, she was called in to help two girls who were fighting about the war between Russia and Ukraine.

There are three full-time teachers at the school who speak Russian, but they are not ESOL teachers so students use dictionaries to find words during lessons.

The district says they recently purchased “Picture This! Word-to-word dictionaries to support the instruction of ESOL Level 1 and 2 students in grades K-2.” Ukrainian and Russian are among the languages available in these dictionaries.

While interviewing with the Miami Herald, the students who had stronger English helped translate for their classmates.

At one point in the interview, Alisa Kravitz, 11, began telling a sad story about a friend who was killed during the war alongside her friend’s dog and its puppies.

“My friend, she died first and then with the second bomb the puppies died,” said Kravitz, on the verge of tears.

Her friend Alisa Shymko immediately jumped in and told a joke to change the subject and cheer her up.

“I can see sometimes that they comfort each other,” said Morejon, the ESOL teacher.

“They hug each other a lot, and it is not infrequent to see that,” she said.

Morejon says she tries to avoid conversations around political issues, which occasionally have caused tension between the students from Russia and Ukraine.

Morejon, who is from Cuba and has been in the United States for 23 years, says when issues arise she will tell them, “new country, new rules.”

Gurman takes a similar approach. “I just tell them you are in a country that accepts everyone, that’s why you are here, that’s why you’re safe here.”