As the Trump administration paused U.S. military aid to Ukraine and Russia advanced on more territory, a tiny non-profit in Colorado Springs is ramping up reinforcement to Ukrainians, one family at a time.

“It’s not stopping me,” said Yana Malyk, the Ukrainian woman who fled the country with her two teenage daughters in 2022 and landed in Colorado.

For Malyk and other fervent supporters of Ukraine, the ground has crumbled beneath their feet in the last week.

On Friday, Feb. 28, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly castigated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office for not being grateful enough for U.S. aid. On Monday, Trump temporarily suspended all military aid to Ukraine, which remains in effect. 

Then came Thursday’s news that the Trump administration is weighing revoking temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled to the United States. The Malyks are in Colorado on United for Ukraine (U4U) status and Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a program started a month after Ukraine was invaded and allowed Ukrainians displaced by the war to stay in the U.S.

Reuters reported that the decision would potentially put Ukrainians on a fast track to deportation as soon as April.

“We’re not looking to hurt anybody, we’re certainly not looking to hurt them, and I’m looking at that,“ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about revoking the Ukrainians’ status and deporting them. “There were some people that think that’s appropriate, and some people don’t, and I’ll be making the decision pretty soon.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on the Reuters report in a post on X, saying “no decision has been made at this time.”

The uncertainty is exhausting for Malyk.

“Most of us don’t have a home to return to,” she said. “We’ve lost everything.“

A life left behind

In the lifestyle she lost, Malyk had a nice home and a thriving career. 

In the past, she had been an advisor and assistant to the governor of the Luhansk Region on humanitarian issues and was instrumental in evacuating people and coordinating relief efforts after the original Russian invasion of her district in 2014.

She brought her insight to co-found Ukraine Power in November 2022. In two-and-a-half years, the small group with big plans has raised more than $380,000, most of which was donated by Coloradans.

In the beginning, as the frigid winter of 2022-2023 loomed, the money went to purchase generators bought in London and trucked to various Ukrainian towns in hopes of providing heat and power. They also sent heaters, rechargeable lamps, cookstoves, and other critical supplies to help Ukraine survive that first winter.

As time went by, the generators became more of a problem than a lifeline as they ran on gas, which was in short supply, couldn’t be operated indoors, and were noisy, which put Ukrainians who were in hiding in danger.

Without hesitation, Malyk pivoted and redirected Ukraine Power’s energy to the needs of families devastated by the war. Not only did the group begin sending large power banks instead — large rechargeable batteries that could be used indoors, and could power entire households — but also found others who were in need.

The group worked with local government officials to help establish a series of hubs across the country, where internally displaced people could come for warmth, get some hot food, wash their clothes, find medical assistance, and connect to the internet as a means of communicating with friends and family.

So far, 32 hubs have been set up, and the Ukrainian government estimates that as many as 1.5 million people have visited them in the past two years. 

The next phase of Ukraine Power’s efforts was directed toward aiding specific people devastated by the effects of the war. Among them are parents who have taken in war orphans and children who were in volatile family situations, where their birth parents could no longer care for them.

Power Ukraine has provided small power stations, power banks, kitchen items, and televisions, and one young boy was given a phone “so that during air raid alerts, he can stay in his school’s shelter and keep in touch with his mother.”

“That gives her peace of mind,” said Malyk.

Looking forward, Malyk has established relationships with other organizations like the Ukrainian Red Cross and UNICEF to provide help. 

On Ukraine Power’s Facebook page, there are dozens of photos and videos of young war survivors giving a thumbs-up in thanks to the organization. They stand in front of power boards and sit at plastic tables draped with lace tablecloths in front of open laptops. In one video, a toddler pulls clothes out of a brand-new washing machine. In another, one of nine children picks through Jingle Bells on a piano sent by Ukraine Power.

The Karptsovs

Families of four who lived under one roof have now expanded to as many as a dozen as they gather displaced children. One of those is the Karptsov family, who lost their eldest son in one of the bloodiest battlefields of the war in 2023.

Yegor Karptsov, 21, had just called his mother the day before he died to beg her to adopt an orphaned child he had seen and lost in the crowds. Oksana Karpstov assured him that she would find the little girl.

The next day Yegor was killed while he was evacuating people from the city of Avdiivka, important to the Russians because it is the gateway to Donetsk, which opposing forces needed for its value as a communications and logistics hub.

A year later, as the Karptsovs emerged from their despair, they decided to honor their son’s last request. They found the girl he had seen in the crowd in a Netherlands orphanage with two younger sisters and a brother. The Karptsovs adopted all four of them, including one child with special needs.

Malyk works with families like the Karptsovs every day as their needs change with political winds.

She has sent lamps to replace candlelight and laptops for online learning.

The war in Ukraine has interrupted their studies so much that around 80% of education is conducted online. Many lack access to technology and networks.

Recent data indicates that at least 1.5 million internally displaced people in Ukraine are children, about 225,000 of whom are school-aged, according to Education Cannot Wait, an education fund administered by UNICEF.

Yana’s escape and recovery

The Malyk family fled the only home they’ve ever known by car and crisscrossed Europe to eventually arrive at Denver International Airport at midnight on July 21, 2022. There, her adopted sponsor Marc Luckett balanced a handful of balloons and a welcome sign and drove them to his home in Colorado Springs.

The Lucketts own an international logistics company and Malyk has the connections. Malyk owned multiple businesses in Svatove, including a women’s health clinic, a travel agency, several commercial buildings, and a sunflower seed farm. All of this was lost, and the family arrived in America with just two suitcases.

Three years after the war started, the Malyks have set up stakes in Colorado, and are living the American dream. They’ve gotten jobs, and cars, and even managed to purchase a home of their own. The older daughter graduated from high school and is now finishing her freshman year in college. The younger one is in middle school “and is so American now.”

“I can’t change what happened. If I think about it all the time I will be sick,“ Malyk told The Denver Gazette.  “I want a good life for me and my family. That’s it.”

Reuters contributed to this story.