Latest news with #Ukrainian-Americans
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rep. DeLauro joins Ukrainian Americans speaking out against Trump's treatment of Zelenskyy
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Ukrainian Americans and their supporters spoke out Friday morning at a press conference in New Haven City Hall. They were joined by U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D- 3rd District), who called President Donald Trump's treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 'shameful.' What they said: Trump, Zelenskyy and Vance's heated argument in the Oval Office 'We live in an upside-down world where lies and disinformation is being presented as fact and truth,' said Myron Melnyk, a member of Saint Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church. Ukrainian-Americans like him are still reacting to the scene in the oval office a week ago, where President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance berated the president of Ukraine. 'They delivered a propaganda gift to Vladimir Putin by staging an ambush, yes an ambush, of President Zelenskyy,' DeLauro said. She pointed out the Trump administration has also pulled funding for Ukraine, stopped sharing intelligence with the Ukrainian military, and is questioning the legal status of Ukrainian refugees now living in the United States. Trump and Zelenskyy through the years: From a 'perfect' call to pausing US assistance to Ukraine 'Democrats would better serve the US and Ukrainian people's interests if they encouraged President Zelenskyy to come back to the U.S., sign the mineral rights agreement and help President Trump bring about a ceasefire and work towards a peace agreement as quickly as possible,' Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Ben Proto said in a statement. 'The best aid we can provide Ukraine is to help end the conflict.' Congresswoman DeLauro said she has met with Zelenskyy and knows his plans were upended by the heated White House interaction. 'He was ready to sign a treaty, and I'm hopeful in that treaty,' DeLauro said. 'I don't know what the details are, that he hasn't given up more than he should in terms of the defense of his own country.' In the meantime, local groups continue to send supplies and money to Ukraine. 'To date we have sent over 14 containers worth of supplies of all kinds: Coats, toothbrushes, such things as generators and air conditioners,' Carl Harvey of the Ukrainian American Veterans said. Local groups like his say they are going to continue to send supplies and money to Ukraine because, they say, that country may need them now more than ever. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukrainians Are in Shock
WHEN I CONSIDER THE PLIGHT of Afghans who worked with U.S. forces in the past, I know in my heart that my country is perfectly capable of abandoning allies. Our bureaucrats and politicians are known to make deadly mistakes and inhuman decisions. When it comes to the Trump administration's abandonment of Ukraine, however, the process cannot be attributed to a mistake—it is gleeful and openly malicious, and carries tremendous ramifications for the role of the United States in the world. JD Vance has already accused Ukrainian-Americans like me of dual loyalty. The vice president seems incapable of understanding why anyone would support Ukraine for reasons other than self-interest, but if Putin had invaded, say, Moldova, instead of my native Ukraine, I would feel exactly the same way about him. Being loyal to my adopted country apparently means being loyal to Vance himself, and his well-documented isolationism and support for nationalist leaders like Viktor Orbán, who is useful—if not outright friendly—to Vladimir Putin and his goal of weakening and humiliating the United States. Join the best pro-democracy community on the internet. Become a Bulwark+ member. I don't think Vance—or Trump, for that matter—really understands Putin's burning hostility toward all Americans, especially American leaders. As I like to point out to fellow Americans, we hardly think about Russia at all, and thus can't imagine the seething hatred many Russians have for us. Since Trump and Vance's disastrous meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, since aid was stopped, and since intelligence sharing has also been paused, I've found myself as the designated recipient of the grief of friends and relatives in the country of my birth. 'We have been so grateful for the years of aid,' my late father's old friend, whom everyone calls Uncle Yurchik, told me, making me flinch as I remembered Vance's brazen lies about Ukraine's lack of gratitude. 'It feels impossible that a world leader like the U.S. would leave its allies to be torn apart.' Yurchik and I spent the first weeks of the full-scale invasion on the phone constantly, chatting while he sheltered in a basement with his grandchildren. He had faith then, and he has it today. But few Americans, even sympathetic ones, can understand the truth of what Russia stands for, the truth that Yurchik knows and carries in his body, marked with illness and stress. 'Wherever Russia shows up, destruction and death follow,' Yurchik told me, referencing not only Ukraine, but also Syria, Georgia, West Africa, and other places. For people who haven't heard Russian planes screaming overhead, perhaps his words ring hollow. It's one thing to see videos of bombs and sterile explosions on social media or the news. It's another to hear, on the other end of the line, Yurchik in his basement, and to know that far above, another man in the cockpit of a bomber is trying to kill him. Share Russia has designs beyond Ukraine, and America is not exempt from them. If they can't attack us directly for now, they are sowing discord between us, so that we may do their job for them. Thanks in part to Russian provocation, Americans are more bitterly divided than we've been in generations, while the Kremlin's most provocative yet honest mouthpiece, Dmitry Medvedev, signals Russian designs on Alaska. My fellow Second Amendment enthusiasts frequently point out that locals alone could defend Alaska quite nicely, but they forget about the long-term damage that disinformation and plain disorientation can have on people. They laugh about how we have superior weapons, not understanding that a weapon that destroys the American mind over time is not so easily overcome—the Orbánism on display in the highest office in the land is proof of that already. This is what Zelensky meant when, during the Oval Office catastrophe, he talked about how the ocean won't protect us, only to be jeered and dismissed. Among my friends fighting off Russians on the front lines today, the only response to the Trump administration has been the word 'shock.' I've heard it over and over again, and while I'm jaded enough to not be shocked myself, I cannot ask them for more at this time. They've seen it all by now—rotting bodies in trenches, women and children following brutal rapes, blood on nursery room floors, little old ladies starving in ruined apartment blocks. To see all that and realize that the United States does not have your back any longer—what is there but shock? Join now Behind the front lines, my old friend, the radical feminist Mariya Dmytreva, a frequent critic of Zelensky, wrote to tell me that she 'expected better from Americans, who have been preaching for decades the virtue of democracy and honor.' I couldn't argue. I couldn't even object, 'Not all Americans!', not even as a joke—the caveat is too feeble. Abandoning our allies is a blight that mars us all. American power likes to flex its muscle, and rightly so. As I often tell my friends and neighbors, a world ruled by the likes of China and Russia is not a world that anyone would want to live in. Yet true strength does not mean stabbing a weaker ally in the back. Strong leaders and strong societies do not revel in the rapes and executions of the vulnerable. 'America First' is our own self-doubt, dressed up as robust, no-nonsense foreign policy. Because only an American who doubts our place in the world would copy and endorse Russian propaganda—as now de-facto president Elon Musk did, for example, when he labeled the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine as Khrushchev's mistake. I agree with fellow Americans who say that Europe should start pulling its weight—increased defense spending is crucial. Europe can't afford to be a museum—and besides, even museums have guards. But with our Orbánist vice president trashing Europe as it aims to step up in Ukraine (because, and I hate that it even needs to be spelled out, Putin is a threat to the continent as a whole), I get the feeling that this won't be good enough for the current administration, either. Russia doesn't have allies. It has nations it dominates and bullies and coerces, and nations it wishes to dominate and bully and coerce. How dissimilar is that foreign policy from America's now? Share The Bulwark Of course, Russia also has a tremendous gap between the rich and poor, and a docile, cowed populace that takes whatever scraps the elite throws its way. And I can't help but think that this gap looks attractive to our billionaires. We are in a new Gilded Age, albeit a tremendously stupid one. The Trump administration's fact-free nihilism is also familiar to anyone who's observed Putin for more than five minutes. Trump administration's insistence that Ukraine is somehow responsible for Russia's invasion—these are the claims of a torturer who wants to break you until you knowingly repeat a lie, and the actions of Russia itself as it insists it attacked Ukraine in self-defense. 'How can a country that was attacked be responsible for starting a war?' Another old friend in Ukraine, Anatoly, asked me after he read Trump's statements. Like many Ukrainians, Anatoly has spent a large portion of his recent years hiding from missiles and drones instead of enjoying his retirement. He is a Russian speaker who used to have friends in Russia, the kind of person Russians claim they are 'protecting' in Ukraine, even as they seek to murder him and his family. I had no easy answer for Anatoly, besides the fact that this state of unreality is expedient to those who wish to wash their hands of him. The illusion that it will all be okay should be shelved for now. I love the United States with the entirety of my broken heart—this country welcomed me and saved me long ago, and made me into the person I am today—which is why I refuse to dabble in illusions on its behalf. I also, however, dabble in hope. A humble hope, and not the pompous kind, because pompousness leads us nowhere. A hope born of many years watching the world fall apart and realign itself around me. The gears of history are turning and some of us will be ground down, but maybe future generations will build things from our dust. Share
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukrainians in Arizona react to Russia-Ukraine peace talks, hope standoff between Trump and Zelenskyy ends
The Brief Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy's trip to the White House on February 28 turned into a war of words in the Oval Office. On March 3, President Donald Trump directed a "pause" to any U.S. aid to Ukraine following his volatile clash with Zelenskyy last week. PHOENIX - On March 3, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy doesn't want peace, but locals with ties to the war-torn country disagree. With a weekend to cool off, the hope of Ukrainian-Americans in Phoenix is for President Trump to come back to the table. What they're saying "I don't have the words to describe what a sinking, sick feeling I had in my stomach, thinking oh my gosh, how are we ever going to get peace," said Christine Boyko, President of the Ukrainian National Womens League of America. That sentiment was only exacerbated as the Associated Press reported President Zelenskyy saying the end of war with Russia is "very, very far away," but he believes Ukraine has a strong enough partnership with the U.S. to keep aid flowing. To which President Trump responded, "This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer! It is what I was saying, this guy doesn't want there to be Peace." "Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians right now," said Irene Amrine, founder at Cactus and Tryzub. "The peace that Ukraine is after, however, is just and long-lasting peace." A deal between the U.S. and Ukraine remains on the table. If Ukraine agrees to provide Washington with 50% of all future proceeds from their critical and rare Earth minerals, President Trump will have a reason to continue sending aid and protecting Ukraine from Russia, which currently stands a $65.9 billion in military assistance. MORE:Trump cuts short talks with Ukraine's Zelenskyy after tense moments in the Oval Office; AZ politicians react Local Ukrainian-Americans say they understand Trump's position, but at what cost? "We have not heard anything from Donald Trump and his cabinet and administration on what exactly Russia has to give up," said Amrine. As the world waits for a reset, 20% of Ukraine remains occupied by Russian forces; an estimated quarter of a million casualties between the two countries; and while most major Ukrainian cities are still standing, Ukrainian-Americans say their friends and family members are living in hell. "I thought President Trump is a tough guy, and I was hoping with all my heart, that he would be able to do something for Ukraine. And I have to say I'm still hopeful and praying that that will still come to pass," said Boyko. What's next The Trump administration paused any aid from the U.S. to Ukraine following last week's Oval Office clash. President Donald Trump wants Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be "committed" to ending the three-year war, the White House said. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a pause on offensive cyberoperations against Russia, rolling back some of the Pentagon's efforts to counter foreign cyber threats.
CBS News
02-03-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Transcript: Rep. John James on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," March 2, 2025
The following is the transcript of an interview with Rep. John James, Republican of Michigan, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on March 2, 2025. MARGARET BRENNAN: We're going to turn now to Michigan Congressman John James. Good morning to you, Congressman. REP. JOHN JAMES: Good morning, Margaret. MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about what's happening in your state with the economy and tariffs, but just staying on the theme for a moment, I know you have a lot of Ukrainian-Americans in your district. You voted in support of last year's Ukraine supplemental. Are you comfortable with the Trump administration's decision to stop recognizing that Russia started the war in Ukraine? REP. JOHN JAMES: Russia is the aggressor. Putin is a war criminal, and Volodymyr Zelensky also fumbled the bag pretty hard. All those things can be true at the exact same time. We absolutely must stand by our allies with the exact same time. We also need to make sure that we are giving transparency and accountability to the American people. Under the Biden administration, billions of dollars were given away with very little accountability and no mission, no end state. I'm a combat veteran, and my soldiers expected from me that I would be able to articulate objectives, a mission and an end state. And the commander-in-chief, last time, couldn't do that. President Trump is doing everything that he can to get a lasting peace, an enduring peace in Eastern Europe and throughout the world. He's already ended one war in the Middle East. I think we should give him a chance to end one in Europe. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I think there's developments on the Mideast front that throw that into question, but we'll keep tracking that. Let me ask you about tariffs and Michigan, because you are really in a unique spot in the middle of the auto state. This Tuesday, expect tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. That's what the President said. On March 12, 25% tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum. No exceptions for trading partners. Auto tariffs in April. What is your district bracing for? REP. JOHN JAMES: Look, America is open for business, but we are not for sale. Michigan remembers what NAFTA did to us. And over the past 30 years, Mexico has built 11 major automotive plants to only one in the United States. Michigan remembers 900,000 automotive jobs over back in the 90s to 600,000 now. That's over 30- 300,000 lost manufacturing jobs in the automotive sector. Michigan remembers the Great Recession, where 50% of all the jobs lost in all of America were lost in Michigan alone. And Michigan remembers the harmful EV mandates that have forced compliance rather than actually allowing a regulatory environment that permits innovation. We've lost jobs to Mexico and China. Right now, in my district, as you mentioned, the number one manufacturing district in all the nation, overflow production is not going to Sterling Heights. It's going to Saltillo, Mexico. When you look at the opportunities that are missing us, when you look at the fact that Michigan is seeing as opportunities pass by, enough is enough. Margaret the status quo is not good enough for Americans, which is why Donald Trump got elected-- MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Understood.— REP. JOHN JAMES: -- he's putting Americans first. And frankly, even our allies have not been playing a fair game. Look free trade is the objective-- MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Okay, I'm asking about the specifics…. REP. JAMES: -- but fair trade- right- okay, go ahead-- MARGARET BRENNAN: -- The specific tactic here, because you brought up Sterling Heights. The Republican mayor of Sterling Heights, Michael Taylor, your district, says the President's tariffs are the, "single biggest threat to our local economy." He's expecting it to be devastating and staggering. This is a Republican saying this about the impact on your district. What's he missing? REP. JOHN JAMES: The- what's devastating and staggering is the fact of the matter that we have been taken advantage of for decades. The president's, under his original tax plan, lowered corporate tax rates from 35 to 21%. He's offering lower tax rates to 15% for those who build in the United States of America. We're also looking at energy independence. We're also looking at lowering the regulatory burdens for folks to succeed and excel. But what Democrats are doing is they're going to actually make it more difficult when they vote against this- these tax reforms for small businesses to excel, for entrepreneurs to get their feet under them. And so regardless of what it is, when you take a look at the EV policies that Joe Biden put in place that actually exacerbated the inflation. Just look at work trucks. Work trucks, five years ago, where- are- were $15,000 less expensive than they are right now. SUVs, $8,000 less expensive than they are right now-- MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Did you tell the mayor he's wrong?-- REP. JOHN JAMES:-- That inflation was caused by terrible Democrat policies and that- and that- What's that? MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you're telling the mayor, he's wrong? I mean, the Ford- Ford CEO said at an investor conference last month, a 25% tariff would blow a hole in the US industry that we have never seen. REP. JOHN JAMES: Well, you know what- the memory is kind of short, because when you look at the OECD nations, they're already talking about leveling 15% tax on anything in businesses that are making $750 million or more. Everybody should be looking at the impact that makes on top of the tariffs that are already imposed on goods that are made in the United States of America. No one is talking about this, Margaret. And all these economists, we expect that these are going-- MARGARET BRENNAN: -- This is the CEO of Ford- the automaker-- REP. JOHN JAMES: -- We are not operating- You know, you can go talk to the CEO of Ford but what I'm dealing with is people I'm talking with when I visit factory floors each and every single day. I am an automotive supplier in the United States of America, and I feel this pain. We've seen it for too long, and like I've said, we've been taken advantage of for years, and we need to level the playing field. When you're not playing fair with America, then we have to do what we can to make sure that we can compete on a fair playing field. And Margaret, I think that fairness is what we should be pursuing, and I don't think that's wrong to ask for out of our allies and our partners. MARGARET BRENNAN: The global supply chain, I know you know it well, is complicated here, and the production goes back and forth-- REP. JOHN JAMES: -- Yes, I have a masters in it, Margaret. I understand it, and I'm also in the automotive industry. Yes, go ahead-- MARGARET BRENNAN: Right- well, what I'm trying to say is that the cars go back and forth across the border multiple times. So, what is the construction of the tariffs that you think is actually going to be beneficial here? REP. JOHN JAMES: You know what also comes across the border, fentanyl coming in from Mexico, when China is sending in precursors, and as a result of these negotiation tactics, Mexico surged 10,000 of their own National Guard troops to the border. And just as you were mentioning the- in the last segment, I think it was great that border apprehensions on the southern border have plunged to the lowest levels this century. You know, if this is working, Mexico is paying for the border security. They're extraditing drug lords to be prosecuted in the United States of America. And these are the types of things that we're looking for. 84% of those in the terror watch list and the FBI terror watch list are apprehended on the northern border. And we're getting Canadian cooperation, which would have never happened under the previous administration and only started when President Trump started playing hard ball and talking about these things. We have a number of levers, diplomatic, economic and military and diplomatic levers haven't worked. We're using economic levers to secure our borders and to make sure that we have fairness across our economy.
Washington Post
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Ukrainian-Americans remain hopeful amid political tension
National Ukrainian-Americans remain hopeful amid political tension February 25, 2025 | 11:54 PM GMT On Feb. 24, Ukrainian refugees and Ukrainian-Americans reflected on the new administration's policies and the future of the war in Ukraine.
