Dozens of Ukrainian men have been deported by ICE. Some were sent straight to the military

Volodymyr Dudnyk was picked up by Ukrainian military draft officers almost immediately after crossing the border into Ukraine following his deportation from the United States. He was sent straight to a training center.

“When I was on the plane to Ukraine, I knew what was coming. But I hoped that perhaps they’d at least let me go home first. Everything happened even faster than I’d thought. I never made it home; I haven’t seen my parents yet,” the 28-year-old told CNN.

Dudnyk spent 51 days in boot camp, then a few weeks training as a drone operator. He is now fighting on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, where his fellow soldiers gave him a new military callsign: “America.”

In President Donald Trump’s second term, the United States has cracked down on every form of immigration and embarked on a mass deportation campaign. While the Trump administration says it is focused primarily on major criminals that it calls “the worst of the worst,” many of those detained have committed only minor offenses or have no criminal records .

This has brought deep uncertainty to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who are now at risk of being removed from the US. But for Ukrainian men of fighting age, there is an added risk. Deportation could lead straight to the front lines.

More than four years of war have left Ukraine’s military struggling with serious manpower shortages. Under Ukrainian law, all men between the ages of 25 and 60 are subject to mobilization . According to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, some 2 million are currently “wanted” for avoiding the draft and about 200,000 soldiers are absent without official leave.

Many of those men have either fled the country or are trying to hide from draft officers who are constantly looking for evaders. CNN has witnessed firsthand draft officers conducting random document checks and taking anyone without a valid exemption straight to military training grounds.

A planeload of military-age men being deported from the US is low-hanging fruit for the draft officers.

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Dudnyk, a tattoo artist, was one of 45 Ukrainian men who were deported from the US by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on November 17, alongside five women.

The group was flown to Poland and transported to the Ukrainian border by US officials who then handed them over to Polish officials who escorted them across the border. One of the people on the flight said they were handcuffed until after crossing the border.

The State Border Service of Ukraine told CNN that of the 45 men, 24 were “wanted” for the draft and were handed to police officers who then took them to the military draft office. In Ukraine, “wanted” status applies to those who have failed to update their data or who have violated mobilization rules.

“A man who was on the plane with me had two or three children, and he was deported too. Another was a 36-year-old who came to America as a child 20 years ago. He hardly speaks any Ukrainian. He was deported too,” Dudnyk said.

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Dudnyk was picked up by ICE officers last August in front of a courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was due to attend a hearing for allegedly driving without a license and car insurance. He acknowledged this wasn’t his first time getting into trouble in the US; he was in the past charged with offenses including driving under the influence, assault and burglary, he told CNN. Court documents show that he was only ever found guilty or pleaded guilty to traffic offenses and one count of disorderly conduct. All other charges were either dropped or dismissed in court.

On that hot August day, things were different. “They got out of the car; they already had my photo. … I never even saw the judge, as I was sent straight to detention. Even though I had official status there,” he said, adding that he had entered the US legally in 2019 on an exchange visa. He then obtained student visa, which was eventually canceled because, the US Department of Homeland Security told CNN, Dudnyk “failed to attend school.”

Dudnyk applied for asylum and was given permission to work while his case was pending. CNN has seen documents confirming his work permit and the fact that his asylum application had been received and was under consideration.

Asked by CNN for comment on his case, a DHS spokesperson said Dudnyk was a “criminal illegal alien from Ukraine” who had stayed in the US after his visa was canceled. “He received full due process,” the spokesperson added.

Dudnyk is one of many asylum applicants from multiple countries that the Trump administration has deported .

Ukrainian couple Daryna and Zhenya, who asked CNN not to use their last names for fear of retribution, said they had entered the US legally in 2022 under the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) program.

That Joe Biden-era scheme allowed private US citizens to sponsor Ukrainians who had fled their country because of the war and wanted to come to the US. They were given two years of humanitarian parole, allowing them to live and work in the US. After the initial two years were up, people could apply for an extension, known as re-parole.

When Daryna and Zhenya applied for re-parole in 2024, Daryna got hers almost immediately. But her husband did not. Instead, his application remained “pending” for more than a year – until he was arrested by ICE in November.

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Julia Bikbova, an American-Ukrainian lawyer specializing in immigration and international law, said that this scenario – in which some members of a family are granted re-parole while others are not – is not unique.

Daryna told CNN the couple was trying to fight Zhenya’s deportation by arguing that he entered the US legally and still needed the country’s protection. Daryna said she was particularly worried that Zhenya, who is 34 – prime sign-up age from the point of view of Ukrainian draft officers – could be sent to fight on the frontlines despite having health issues. She said he has problems with his spine.

“The situation in Ukraine right now is that they are conscripting men even with the most severe disabilities,” she told CNN.

Her worries are not unfounded. Anton Smovzh, who was on the same deportation flight as Dudnyk and was similarly sent to a military training center straight after crossing the border from Poland, said the draft officers took everyone with “wanted” status, regardless of their situation.

“In the medical exam, they took my blood in three minutes and said I was fit for service,” he told CNN in Kyiv, where he is currently keeping a low profile after escaping from the military.

Smovzh, 34, told CNN that when he was deported from the US, his wife – also from Ukraine – and their son were effectively forced to leave as well. “My son is an American citizen, and de facto, he was deported too, because my wife cannot work with a small child, so they had to leave,” he told CNN.

Like Daryna and Zhenya, Smovzh entered Ukraine under the U4U program. He was detained and deported by ICE after being charged with rape and sexual assault – even though all charges against him were withdrawn shortly before his deportation, court documents show. It is not clear from the documents why the charges were withdrawn – the Philadelphia Police Department told CNN it cannot comment on cases that have been dismissed and the district attorney’s office did not respond to repeated requests for information. Speaking to CNN, Smovzh vehemently denied the allegations against him.

According to DHS, Zhenya agreed to leave the US voluntarily on March 15. CNN has not been able to reach him or Daryna since then.

An estimated 280,000 Ukrainians entered the US under the U4U scheme before it was suspended in January 2025, alongside all other categorical humanitarian parole programs, as Trump took office.

The humanitarian parole system allows a person who would normally not be allowed to enter the US to request entry “based on urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit.”

This could be to receive life-saving medical treatment or visit a family member with a serious illness, to act as a witness in an important trial or to escape imminent danger. The granting of humanitarian parole is discretionary and receiving it does not give the parolee any legal immigration status. It is intended to be a short-term solution for an acute crisis.

“There was an expectation that the war would end and (the people who entered on U4U) would go back. The program was not designed to lead to a permanent residency or visa. It was meant to allow Ukrainians to sit out the war,” Bikbova said. But instead, the war has now entered its fifth year.

Maksim Levin/Reuters

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Officially, the U4U program has not been scrapped under the Trump administration. Instead, as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a DHS agency, announced it would stop accepting new applications and said that individual renewal requests would be granted only in the case of “continued urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”

“On paper, the protections for Ukrainians are still in place… but right now, ICE has the sweeping authority to pick up anybody,” Bikbova said, pointing to recent cases where federal law enforcement officers have arrested permanent residents and even US citizens .

The Trump administration also introduced a new $1,000 fee to be paid once re-parole is granted, on top of the nearly $600 application fee – amounts Bikbova said could be prohibitive.

A DHS spokesperson laid responsibility for the Trump administration’s deportations of Ukrainians to a country still at war at the door of the previous government.

“The Biden administration did a profound disservice to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russian invasion by exploiting humanitarian parole authority in ways it was never intended, turning a narrow, case-by-case emergency tool into a mass-admission program that left these vulnerable people in a precarious, temporary limbo with no path to lasting security,” the spokesperson said.

Ruslan, 26, told CNN he was detained during a traffic stop and was not aware of having done anything wrong. “They just pulled up behind me and asked for my documents. I gave them my driver’s license, and they asked for my passport, which I had left at home. They said I was illegal, handcuffed me and took me to jail. And that was it. No one asked me anything,” he said.

Through his girlfriend, Ruslan quickly provided the authorities with his documents – the parole, which was valid for three more months, as well as a work permit. He asked CNN not to use his full name for privacy reasons.

“Everything as it should be. But that wasn’t enough… They cancelled my parole and all my documents that allowed me to stay in America,” he said, speaking to CNN from Poland.

The DHS spokesperson told CNN that Ruslan was “an illegal alien from Ukraine” who had entered the US in 2024 and was granted parole.

“Parole or a pending application does not grant a legal status,” the spokesperson said. According to the law, the DHS has the right to revoke parole at any time and without notice – and it did so in Ruslan’s case. No reason was given.

Trump administration expands ICE’s ability to detain legal refugees in latest memo

The Trump administration has gone even further when it comes to parole programs for people from countries like Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, seeking to revoke them completely. The Supreme Court sided with the administration on the issue in an emergency ruling last year.

Ruslan said he had decided against fighting deportation on his lawyer’s advice and, when he was given the option to leave the US voluntarily, he took it. Sitting in detention was proving costly, as Ruslan could not earn but still had to pay for the apartment he was renting with his Ukrainian partner Kateryna, also in the US on the U4U program. And by leaving voluntarily, he was able to avoid being sent to Ukraine, where he would be drafted, he said.

Kateryna said the couple loved living in New York. “I liked the ocean the most. I (worked at) a beauty salon in Brighton Beach and after work we always went to the ocean just to walk or drink coffee. We did this all the time. We sat on a bench or on the rocks by the ocean,” she said.

“I keep thinking – if they wanted people to leave, they could have said, for example, ‘We don’t want you here, U4U is closing down and here’s the deadline for departure.’ Then people would have left normally, instead of facing all this.” Kateryna added that she felt lucky they don’t have children after seeing entire families uprooted by detentions and deportations.

“I spoke to someone who had two or three children, very young children. And the man was simply taken away, leaving them without an income, without anything,” she said.

Smovzh was detained by ICE in June while out on bail over the charges of rape, sexual assault and indecent exposure that were later withdrawn.

A photograph showing that moment – Smovzh in handcuffs, flanked by masked officers – was published on the US Border Patrol’s official Instagram account. It inaccurately described him as being “wanted for rape, aggravated indecent assault, and reckless endangerment.” As of March, the photograph was still online. Smovzh was never convicted of any wrongdoing.

DHS told CNN that Smovzh “received full due process.”

He told CNN he was determined to return to the US, even though his deportation makes that option extremely unlikely. “For me, it’s a matter of principle to return to the US. I believe that I did nothing to deserve being deported,” he said.

“I’m not angry at Americans,” he added. “When I was in (detention) there were Ukrainians who had been in prison for 10 to 20 years. I understand why the country doesn’t want criminal immigrants. I wouldn’t want that either. But in my case, I was just unlucky.”

Dudnyk said that when his family and friends learned he was being deported to Ukraine, they suggested that he, like Smovzh, should try to run away from the military.

But that was not an option he would consider.

“While travelling here, I saw so many graves of soldiers. It really got to me,” he told CNN. “At that moment, I told myself that I wouldn’t go AWOL and would fight instead.”

CNN’s Victoria Butenko contributed reporting.

弗拉基米尔·杜德尼克从美国被驱逐出境后，刚一越过边境进入乌克兰就被乌克兰征兵官员抓获，并直接被送往训练中心。

“当我登上飞往乌克兰的飞机时，我就知道会发生什么。但我还是抱有一丝希望，或许他们至少会先让我回家。一切发生得比我想象的还要快。我再也没能回家；我至今还没见到我的父母，”这位28岁的男子告诉CNN。

杜德尼克在训练营待了51天，然后又接受了几周的无人机操作员训练。他现在在乌克兰东部的前线作战，他的战友们给他起了一个新的军事呼号：“美国”。

在唐纳德·特朗普总统的第二个任期内，美国严厉打击各种形式的移民，并开展了大规模驱逐行动。尽管特朗普政府声称其主要目标是所谓的“罪大恶极”的重罪犯，但许多被拘留者仅犯有轻微罪行或根本没有犯罪记录。

这给数十万面临被驱逐出境风险的人们的生活带来了极大的不确定性。但对于乌克兰适龄男性来说，风险更大。被驱逐出境可能意味着直接被送上前线。

四年多的战争使乌克兰军队面临严重的兵力短缺。根据乌克兰法律，所有25岁至60岁的男性都必须服兵役。据乌克兰国防部称，目前约有200万人因逃避兵役而被“通缉”，另有约20万士兵未经许可擅离职守。

这些人中许多已经逃离该国，或者试图躲避征兵官员，因为这些官员一直在搜寻逃避兵役者。CNN亲眼目睹了征兵官员进行随机文件检查，并将任何没有有效豁免证明的人直接送往军事训练场。

一飞机正值服役年龄的男性被遣返回国，这对征兵官员来说简直是唾手可得的成果。

俄罗斯向乌克兰发射超过1000架无人机，春季攻势在战场上愈演愈烈

纹身艺术家杜德尼克是 11 月 17 日被美国移民和海关执法局 (ICE) 驱逐出境的 45 名乌克兰男子之一，同时被驱逐的还有 5 名女子。

这群人被空运到波兰，然后由美国官员送至乌克兰边境，再由美国官员移交给波兰官员，由波兰官员护送他们过境。飞机上的一名乘客称，他们直到过境后才被解开手铐。

乌克兰国家边防局告诉CNN，这45名男子中有24人因未按规定登记入伍而被“通缉”，他们被移交给警察，随后被送往兵役登记处。在乌克兰，“通缉”状态适用于那些未更新个人信息或违反征兵规定的人员。

“和我同机的一位男士有两三个孩子，他也遭到了遣返。另一位是36岁的男子，20年前还是个孩子的时候来到美国。他几乎不会说乌克兰语，他也遭到了遣返，”杜德尼克说道。

乌克兰利用“地下铁路”将俄罗斯儿童带回国的内部运作

去年八月，杜德尼克在宾夕法尼亚州匹兹堡一家法院门前被美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）官员逮捕。当时他正准备出庭，接受关于他涉嫌无证驾驶和无保险驾驶的听证。他告诉CNN，这并非他第一次在美国惹上麻烦；他过去曾被控犯有酒后驾驶、袭击和入室盗窃等罪行。法庭文件显示，他最终只被判犯有或认罪于交通违章和一项扰乱治安罪。所有其他指控均被撤销或驳回。

那个炎热的八月天，情况却截然不同。“他们下了车，手里已经有了我的照片……我甚至都没见到法官，就被直接送进了拘留所。尽管我在那里有合法身份，”他说道，并补充说他于2019年持交流签证合法入境美国。之后他又获得了学生签证，但最终被取消了，因为正如美国国土安全部告诉CNN的那样，杜德尼克“没有按时上学”。

杜德尼克申请了庇护，并在案件审理期间获准工作。CNN已查阅相关文件，证实了他的工作许可，以及他的庇护申请已被受理并正在审理的事实。

CNN就杜德尼克的案件向国土安全部发言人寻求置评时，发言人表示，杜德尼克是一名“来自乌克兰的非法移民罪犯”，他的签证被取消后仍滞留在美国。“他已获得完整的正当程序，”发言人补充道。

杜德尼克是特朗普政府驱逐的众多来自多个国家的庇护申请者之一。

乌克兰夫妇达琳娜和珍妮娅（她们要求 CNN 不要透露她们的姓氏，因为害怕遭到报复）表示，她们于 2022 年通过“团结乌克兰”（U4U）计划合法进入美国。

拜登时代的这项计划允许美国公民担保因战争逃离乌克兰并希望前往美国的乌克兰人。他们获得为期两年的“人道主义假释”，允许他们在美国生活和工作。两年期满后，他们可以申请延期，即“重新假释”。

2024年，达琳娜和珍妮娅申请重新假释时，达琳娜几乎立即就获得了批准。但她的丈夫却没有。相反，他的申请一直处于“待审”状态一年多——直到11月他被美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）逮捕。

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images

专门从事移民和国际法的美国乌克兰裔律师朱莉娅·比克博娃表示，这种部分家庭成员获得重新假释而部分家庭成员不获得重新假释的情况并非个例。

达琳娜告诉CNN，他们夫妇正在努力阻止热尼亚被遣返，理由是他是合法进入美国的，仍然需要美国的保护。达琳娜说，她尤其担心34岁的热尼亚——在乌克兰征兵官员看来，这个年龄正是征兵的黄金年龄——尽管身体不好，却可能被派往前线作战。她说热尼亚有脊柱问题。

她告诉 CNN：“乌克兰目前的状况是，他们甚至征召身患重度残疾的男性入伍。”

她的担忧并非空穴来风。与杜德尼克同乘一架遣返航班的安东·斯莫夫日也表示，他同样在从波兰越过边境后就被直接送往军事训练中心。他说，征兵官员会把所有被列为“通缉犯”的人都带走，无论他们的具体情况如何。

“体检时，他们三分钟就抽了我的血，然后说我适合服役，”他在基辅告诉 CNN。他目前在逃离军队后一直保持低调。

34岁的斯莫夫日告诉CNN，当他被美国驱逐出境时，他的妻子（也是乌克兰人）和他们的儿子实际上也被迫离开。“我的儿子是美国公民，事实上他也遭到了驱逐，因为我妻子不能带着年幼的孩子工作，所以他们不得不离开，”他告诉CNN。

与达琳娜和珍妮娅一样，斯莫夫日也是通过U4U项目进入乌克兰的。他被美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）指控强奸和性侵后遭到拘留并被驱逐出境——尽管法庭文件显示，在他被驱逐出境前不久，所有指控都被撤销了。文件并未说明撤销指控的原因——费城警察局告诉CNN，他们无法对已被驳回的案件发表评论，而地区检察官办公室则没有回应CNN多次的信息请求。斯莫夫日在接受CNN采访时强烈否认了对他的指控。

据美国国土安全部称，Zhenya于3月15日同意自愿离开美国。此后，CNN一直未能联系到他或Daryna。

据估计，在特朗普上任后，U4U计划于 2025 年 1 月被暂停，所有其他类别的人道主义假释计划也被暂停，在此之前，约有 28 万乌克兰人通过该计划进入美国。

人道主义假释制度允许通常不被允许进入美国的人“基于紧急人道主义原因或重大公共利益”申请入境。

这可能包括接受救命的医疗救治、探望身患重病的家人、在重要审判中作证或逃离迫在眉睫的危险。人道主义假释的授予由司法机关酌情决定，获得假释并不赋予被假释者任何合法的移民身份。其目的是为突发危机提供短期解决方案。

“人们原本期望战争会结束，（通过U4U项目入境的）人会返回家园。该项目并非旨在获得永久居留权或签证，而是为了让乌克兰人能够避开战争，”比克博娃说道。然而，战争如今已进入第五个年头。

马克西姆·莱文/路透社

他以战争英雄的身份凯旋而归。然而，在私底下，他却成了暴君。

官方层面而言，U4U项目并未在特朗普政府时期被取消。相反，作为特朗普打击移民政策的一部分，国土安全部下属的美国公民及移民服务局（USCIS）宣布将停止接受新的申请，并表示只有在“持续存在紧急人道主义原因或具有重大公共利益”的情况下才会批准个人续签申请。

“从表面上看，对乌克兰人的保护措施仍然有效……但现在，美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）拥有广泛的权力来逮捕任何人，”比克博娃说道，并指出最近的案例中，联邦执法人员逮捕了永久居民，甚至美国公民。

特朗普政府还推出了一项新的费用，即在重新获得假释后需支付 1000 美元，此外还有近 600 美元的申请费——比克博瓦表示，这些费用可能会让人望而却步。

美国国土安全部发言人将特朗普政府将乌克兰人驱逐到仍处于战争状态的国家的责任归咎于前任政府。

发言人表示：“拜登政府滥用人道主义假释权，以完全违背其初衷的方式，对数十万逃离俄罗斯入侵的乌克兰人造成了极大的伤害，将一项范围狭窄、个案处理的紧急工具变成了一项大规模接纳计划，使这些弱势群体陷入了岌岌可危的暂时困境，没有获得持久安全的道路。”

26岁的鲁斯兰告诉CNN，他是在一次交通拦截中被拘留的，他并不知道自己做错了什么。“他们把车停在我后面，问我要证件。我给了他们驾照，他们又要我的护照，但我把护照落在家里了。他们说我是非法移民，给我戴上手铐，把我带进了监狱。事情就是这样。没人问我任何问题。”他说。

鲁斯兰通过女友迅速向当局提供了他的文件——有效期还有三个月的假释证和工作许可证。他要求CNN出于隐私考虑不要使用他的全名。

“一切都按部就班。但这还不够……他们取消了我的假释，以及所有让我留在美国的文件，”他在波兰接受 CNN 采访时说道。

美国国土安全部发言人告诉 CNN，鲁斯兰是“来自乌克兰的非法移民”，他于 2024 年进入美国，并获得了假释。

发言人表示：“假释或正在申请假释并不赋予任何人法律身份。” 根据法律规定，国土安全部有权随时撤销假释，无需事先通知——而国土安全部也确实在鲁斯兰的案例中这样做了。但并未给出任何理由。

特朗普政府在最新备忘录中扩大了美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）拘留合法难民的权力

特朗普政府在对待来自古巴、海地、尼加拉瓜和委内瑞拉等国的公民的假释计划上走得更远，试图彻底撤销他们的假释资格。最高法院去年在一项紧急裁决中支持了政府的这一立场。

鲁斯兰说，他听从律师的建议，决定放弃抗争，不再抗拒遣返。当他可以选择自愿离开美国时，他毫不犹豫地选择了离开。被拘留让他损失惨重，因为他无法工作，却还要支付与乌克兰伴侣卡捷琳娜（她也通过U4U项目在美国）合租的公寓的租金。他说，自愿离开让他得以避免被遣返回乌克兰，否则他将被强制征召入伍。

卡特琳娜说，这对夫妇很喜欢住在纽约。“我最喜欢大海。我曾在布莱顿海滩的一家美容院工作，下班后我们总是去海边散步或喝咖啡。我们经常这样做。我们会坐在长椅上或海边的岩石上，”她说。

“我一直在想——如果他们想让人们离开，他们完全可以说，比如，‘我们不欢迎你们，U4U项目即将关闭，这是离境的最后期限。’那样的话，人们就可以正常离开了，而不是面临这一切。”卡特琳娜补充说，看到那么多家庭因为拘留和驱逐而流离失所，她觉得自己很幸运没有孩子。

“我跟一位有两三个孩子、孩子都很小的妈妈聊过。她丈夫就这样被带走了，让她失去了收入来源，一无所有，”她说。

斯莫夫兹在6月份被美国移民及海关执法局拘留，当时他正处于保释期，被控强奸、性侵犯和猥亵暴露，但这些指控后来被撤销。

一张照片记录了当时的场景——斯莫夫日戴着手铐，两侧是戴着面罩的警官——这张照片被发布在美国边境巡逻队的官方Instagram账号上。照片错误地描述他“因强奸、严重猥亵和鲁莽危害他人安全而被通缉”。截至3月，这张照片仍然在网上。斯莫夫日从未被判犯有任何罪行。

美国国土安全部告诉 CNN，斯莫夫兹“得到了充分的正当程序”。

他告诉CNN，他决心返回美国，尽管被驱逐出境的可能性微乎其微。“对我来说，返回美国是原则问题。我相信我没有做错任何事，不应该被驱逐出境。”他说。

“我并不恨美国人，”他补充道。“我被拘留的时候，那里有一些乌克兰人已经坐牢10到20年了。我理解为什么这个国家不想要有犯罪记录的移民。我也不希望那样。但就我而言，我只是运气不好。”

杜德尼克说，当他的家人和朋友得知他将被遣返回乌克兰时，他们建议他像斯莫夫日一样，想办法逃离军队。

但他不会考虑这个选项。

“来到这里旅行的路上，我看到了很多士兵的坟墓。这真的让我很受触动，”他告诉CNN。“那一刻，我告诉自己，我绝不会擅离职守，我会战斗到底。”

CNN的维多利亚·布滕科对此报道亦有贡献。