KAILUA, Hawaii (AP) – A Ukrainian family who came to Hawaii for a long-awaited vacation watched in shock from the islands as bombs fell on their land. Now, more than a month later, they are still stranded on Oahu with no access to their home, money, family, or friends.
They have found support from the local canoe paddling community, who have provided them with housing and raised money online to help them settle down. They don’t know if they will ever be able to return to their homeland.
Vasyl and Marina Prishchak and their three daughters, ages 5, 10 and 16, arrived in Hawaii in mid-February, having planned an idyllic three-week beach vacation before Russia invaded Ukraine.
“This holiday changed our lives,” said Vasyl Prishchak, who, together with his wife, owns a cosmetics company with stores in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. “We don’t know how we’re going to return to Ukraine and what we’re going to do, we’re starting from scratch, from scratch.”
Not sure if their house near a military base in Kyiv is still standing, they say they are at financial risk because their family business has had to close.
The family had previously been to Hawaii several times to visit longtime friends Borys and Beata Markin. Vasyl and Borys have been friends for around 30 years and are both avid ocean paddlers.
The community has helped the family with everything from school and immigration issues to financial aid and housing.
Until last week, they lived in a borrowed home in Kailua, a beach town on Oahu’s windward side, but a family friend, Beata Markin, said they’ve now secured a tiny cottage in Kaneohe, where the owner allows them to stay for free stay as long as you need.
“They have nowhere to go,” said Markin, who was born in Hungary and has lived in Hawaii with her Ukrainian husband for eight years. “I think it’s our responsibility to make sure they’re happy here.”
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An online fundraiser organized by members of the canoe club has raised more than $32,000 for the family so far.
“Sorry, we can’t help all Ukrainians, but we can help this family,” wrote Charlotte Johnson, an Oahu resident who helped set up the fundraiser. “The banking system in Ukraine is in shambles and they cannot access any of their accounts. None of us can imagine going on vacation only to find that what’s left of life no longer exists.”
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians were abroad when Russia invaded. In addition, the United Nations said on Wednesday that more than 4 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began, the largest movement of people in Europe since World War II.
While U.S. officials could not immediately say exactly how many Ukrainians were in the U.S. on tourist or business visas when the war began, the Department of Homeland Security estimates that an estimated 75,000 Ukrainians are eligible to apply for temporary protective status granted to them this allows you to stay in the country for 18 months.
Although the Prishchak family hopes to eventually return home, they are applying to remain under the program, which was established in 1990 to allow people to stay in the United States because of civil wars or natural disasters in their home countries. The permit will be extended until Homeland Security determines conditions are stable enough for people to return.
The US is also expanding efforts to help Ukrainian refugees elsewhere. During a meeting with European allies in Brussels last week, President Joe Biden said the US would take in up to 100,000 more Ukrainian refugees and provide $1 billion in humanitarian aid to countries hit by the Russian invasion.
Prishchak’s eldest daughter, 16-year-old Mariia, said her excitement about vacationing in Hawaii was quickly replaced by fear for her loved ones.
They took a lot of photos for the first week, she said, but “one day we disappeared from all social media because there’s no time to post those photos when people are suffering.”
Mariia said she always dreamed of going to school in the US, but not under such dire circumstances. She checks in with friends and family every morning and evening to make sure they are safe.
“Every day I hope that the next day everything is ready,” she said. “And it’s terrible. I’m confused and can’t do anything but think about the situation.”
Her father said it was difficult being in the safety of a tropical paradise while other men his age are struggling at home and not allowed to leave the country.
“It’s a really terrible feeling that eats you up inside when you understand that all your close relatives are in a very complicated situation now,” the elder Prishchak said in Russian. “And there’s no way you can help them stop this absolute madness. It’s a feeling that just eats you up inside, you could say. A terrible feeling, an inner guilt that I am here and not there.”