Diana DeGette Meets with Ukrainian Refugees in Denver

As the war between Russia and Ukraine presses on, Colorado Representative Diana DeGette met with three Ukrainian women who recently arrived in Denver after they were forced to leave their country due to the ongoing conflict, according to a press release from DeGette’s office.

DeGette met with three Ukrainian women on Tuesday:

Iryna Rothko, 36, fled with her two small children from their home in Kyiv and had to leave her husband behind. Katerina Khmil, 73, and her daughter, Tetiana Khmil, 53, fled from their home in Poltava, Ukraine, leaving behind Katerina’s husband and two adult songs.

DeGette was joined by Jennifer Wilson of Denver’s International Rescue Committee, who group is helping to support Ukrainian refugees as they arrive in the Denver area.

Rothko arrived just days before the meeting with DeGette.

“In the beginning, we were in total denial,” Rothko says. “Nobody believed the war was coming.”

Rothko is one of more than 3 million Ukrainians who have left the country since the war broke out almost exactly a month ago, on February 24, 2022. During the meeting, she showed DeGette a home security video clip from their home outside Kyiv showing the moment it was bombed by Russian forces and reduced to rubble.

“This is what Russia is doing,” DeGette says. “This is not a military target; they are targeting suburban houses.”

Katerina Khmil and her daughter, Tetiana, arrived in Denver last week after a five-day journey out of Ukraine. Khmil described her home in Poltava, Ukraine, which was located in close proximity to a Ukrainian military base, one of the first targets bombed by Russian forces when the invasion began in late February.

“We left everything behind in search of safety,” Katerina tells DeGette through an interpreter.

Even though they witnessed nightly bombings around their home since the war began, Khmil and her daughter waited two weeks before making the decision to leave for the U.S., as it meant leaving their home and everything they had behind. The mother and daughter have remained in near-daily contact with Khmil’s husband and her two adult sons, who are now helping to defend their homeland. While they are physically safe in the U.S., Tetiana tells DeGette they don’t feel safe because the country is still at war.

At the beginning of the meeting, DeGette told the attendees that she expects more Ukrainian refugees to arrive in Denver in the coming weeks. In order to help those forced to flee their homes, DeGette says that Congress and the Biden administration are working to expedite the process for those coming to the U.S. under the Refugee Resettlement Program.

“People whose houses are being bombed every day can’t wait for two years to be able to come here,” DeGette says. “Congress and the White House are working very hard, in a bipartisan way, to (expedite the process).”

DeGette was also among a group of lawmakers who recently called on the Biden administration to provide Ukrainians already residing in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status so they wouldn’t be forced to return home when their visas expired. The administration announced shortly after the letter was sent that it would take this step.

Screenshot courtesy of Diana DeGette on YouTube