Oleg and Yuliia Karakash and their daughters, 6-year-old Dasha and infant Mila, are here in Citrus County from Ukraine as part of the Uniting for Ukraine program, a streamlined process that allows Ukrainian refugees who have escaped the war with Russia to relocate to the United States.

The Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) program, established in April 2022, served to provide a pathway for Ukrainian citizens and their immediate family members to come to the U.S. and stay temporarily for two years in a “humanitarian parole” status.

On Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it would stop accepting new applications for U4U pending the Trump Administration’s review of all humanitarian parole programs.

Currently, U4U is suspended indefinitely, with no new travel authorizations being issued.

Ukrainians who were previously granted this humanitarian parole status may still be affected by potential changes to their status, including its termination by the government.

More than 158,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the US under the U4U program, according to Homeland Security.

On Sept. 4, 2025, the Karakash family will officially be classified as Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which is not considered legal status.

“We’re not the only ones who are in this situation,” Oleg said. “There are many of us. I know a lot of people are already leaving, self-deporting themselves … and our time is ticking.”

Oleg and Yuliia Karakash, along with daughters baby Mila and 6-year-old Dasha (not pictured), left their homeland of Ukraine early in the war with Russia. A Beverly Hills homeowner has taken them in where they share a house with him.

As young people growing up in Ukraine, Oleg and Yuliia (“Julia”) Karakash knew about America.

“If you hear the word ‘democracy,’ you will think about America,” Oleg said. “If you hear about rules or laws that are working, you will think about America. If you are refugee and you have a hope to move – America.

“America for us … it’s like a lighthouse. I mean, it is where the law is working. Where everything is working.”

The Karakashes have been in the U.S. under the Uniting For Ukraine program since August 2023. They came to Citrus County in November 2023.

Yuliia Karakash holds her infant daughter Mila Friday afternoon at the Beverly Hills home where they have recently been living.

“Americans always smiling,” Yuliia said. “We smile when it’s a good joke or something very funny, but Americans always smiling … all people are kind. They are smiling and they are good.

“I just want to say that when the war begin and people in Russia start to protest about the government, Ukrainian people start to protest about Ukraine,” she said. “And we just all the time say, ‘We need to be more like America. The government need to be like in America. Because they listen to their people. They love their people.’”

When the war with Russia began in February 2022, Oleg was at sea, working at his job in the merchant fleet, transporting cargo.

“I graduated from the College of Navigation and have a 10-year occupation in the ocean fleet,” he said. “It was a good job.”

Yuliia was at home with their 3-year-old daughter, Dasha – home was Kiliya, a city in the southern part of Ukraine in the Odessa region on the coast of the Black Sea.

“In our part of Ukraine, near Romania and Moldova, you will hardly find Ukrainians,” Oleg said. “My ancestors are from Bulgaria. Also, another specific is that nobody speaks Ukrainian there. We mostly speak Russian … because it’s the ex-USSR history.”

The day the Russians invaded Ukraine, Oleg was about to start his work shift at noon.

“I see that on the bridge, everybody look at me weird. All officers was on the bridge. And everybody look at me like I’m a ghost, because I was only one Ukrainian,” he said. “The captain said, ‘We have bad news … the war start.

“I call my wife and my father. ... My father said, ‘I pick up girls and send them to Moldova.’ What saved our part of Ukraine is, in February we have bad weather,” he said. “The (Russian) vessels was already near our shore. So they planned to occupy Odessa region, but they couldn’t because of the rough sea.

“They always want Odessa region because it’s very good. If you will see the map, that’s an important part. You have ports and you have more access to Black Sea.”

Yuliia and Dasha went to nearby Moldova, thinking that they would only be there for a few days at the most.

“So we just took one pair of shoes, one bag for me and Dasha,” she said. “Everybody was saying, ‘It’s gonna be quick. We will defend and be over.’ We didn’t expect it to be so long.”

They were in Moldova for a few weeks before they returned. At that time, most of the conflict was to the north.

Meanwhile, Oleg stayed on his job at sea for eight months before returning home.

“I decided, I will come back to Ukraine. I had plans to help somehow,” he said.

“He was helping all the time he was on board, earning money that (we used) to help a lot of people,” Yuliia said. “A lot of people started migrating to the south, because it was pretty safe.

“All the refugees from the hot spots, they moved to our place, and we were helping as much as possible, to help them find them a living. We had a lot of empty houses in our city, empty clothes, food, everything.

“They just left their home because it was dangerous, without any clothes, without what you need for everyday, like toothbrush or something,” she said. “And also, the place where we live, it’s on the border with Romania and Moldova, so it’s very easy access to Europe. So people were going there, and probably migrate to Europe and find some spots.”

The Karakash parents are owners of three businesses, including one making candles.

After Oleg came home, life started getting hard. At that time there were no bombings, but they were often without electricity, which meant sleeping in a bedroom where the overnight temperatures were in the 40s.

“It was a hard decision to come to the United States. … From fall to summer in Ukraine, we were doing as much as possible helping people,” he said. “But then things started turning a little bit. It was more than a year of the war; the winter was really hard without electricity – they destroy a lot of grid, electric grid.

“It was like four months of real survival. It was just a hard time, but we were pretty fine. ... You just need to understand, every day we were expecting tomorrow the war to end. We were waiting like maybe a week more. Nobody thinks it’s going to be a long time.”

That’s when he decided he needed to learn English.

One day he was online with a group that was learning English together and a man, also named Oleg, befriended him.

This Oleg lived in Iowa, having emigrated to the U.S. from Latvia about 30 years ago and is now a U.S. citizen.

“He said, ‘Hey, why are you still there?’ I said, ‘What do you mean? What else we should do?’ He said, ‘I can help. I’m in the United States.’”

He told Oleg about the Uniting for Ukraine program, and together they completed all the required documentation, and in August 2023, the Karakash family landed in Chicago – the day Russians attacked their city.

“That summer, Putin said that they no more allow Ukraine trade wheat … and that’s why they start attacking south, just to destroy ports and all storages of wheat,” Yuliia said.

Once Oleg and his family were settled in the U.S., Oleg began making short videos for TikTok and Instagram as he discovered this new country.

“Biggest discovery – sub sandwiches!” he said in one video. “They’re everywhere. Everybody eats sub sandwiches.”

In another he said, “Losing everything was my biggest lesson in life. Before, we are prisoners of our property. In the U.S., we start from scratch and realize the only important thing is family.”

He even made a video of the first time at a Mexican restaurant, amazed at the bright, colorful decor and at eating cactus for the first time.

Currently. he has 38,000 followers on Instagram (@_can_you_imagine_) and 78,000 on TikTok (@family_from_ukraine).

“America, what we saw in the movies or wherever, was different than we saw real, and we were very surprised and amazed,” Oleg said. “In our eyes, this was paradise. What we saw here, like people, opportunity, like everything around, so we decide to start making video to show Americans just our surprising view. And video start getting a lot of views.”

A person in Citrus County began following Oleg’s videos and eventually invited the Karakash family to come to Florida and that he would sponsor them.

So, around Thanksgiving 2023, they moved to Citrus County.

“We found perfect county because it is perfect,” Oleg said. “It is super calm. Nothing happening like crime. … Dasha has school, and then we start business.”

Their sponsor suggested that Oleg, with his outgoing personality, positive attitude and many handyman-type skills, start a pressure-washing and house-painting business, which is now Manatee Wash.

Oleg also makes candles with Let’s Bring the Light Candles.

“I said, ‘I even don’t know what is pressure washing,’ no idea,” Oleg said. “We don’t have pressure washing in Ukraine. He said, ‘Let’s go to see YouTube.’

“In one moment, like a year ago, we feel so safe. We feel that we have three more years of legal status (with a two-year extension). And we decide we will make a baby. And then, of course, all things happen (with immigration status).

“People warn me … but I say, no, we are refugees. We are legal. I have all documents. I have work authorization, absolutely legal. I have LLC, insurance. I do everything right,” he said. “And people warn me. But I was in that moment thinking nothing gonna happen with us. But then things change. ... First they canceled extensions. We cannot extend right now.

“Then their next action was ban us from applying for anything else, especially our program, now not allowed to get any visa. ... And we kind of became in a very big limbo.”

With few exceptions, on most days Oleg and Yuliia are confident and hopeful that everything will work out for them.

They do not want to return to Ukraine because they don’t want their daughters to live in constant fear of bombings and attacks, sirens blaring at all hours of the day and night.

Even if peace is declared, Oleg said, Russia will continue to encroach upon Ukraine.

“Ukraine is mentally a very hard place,” Oleg said. “Me and my wife, we are first generation of people who don’t see war. Our grandfathers and grandmothers, they were still witnesses. And they were so happy that we are the first who don’t know what war is. ... But now we know what war is, and what the consequences will be 20, 30, 40 years from today; it will be hard times.”

“Even before war, in Ukraine the people were not happy,” Yuliia said. “And we were not kind, not polite. I think we will not come back just because we saw American people. They are the most kindest people in the whole world.”

However, if they are told to deport, they will.

“If the government decides to get rid of us, we’re OK with that; we will not complain; we’ll obey,” Oleg said. “If we have to move, we will still be grateful, because it’s part of our story … and maybe it’s for the good.”

“Challenges make us better people,” Yuliia said.

“You never know what life brings you,” Oleg said. “That’s why in all my videos I try hard to focus on what’s good. I get messages from people saying, ‘I’m so sorry what’s happening with you,’ but it’s OK. It’s our journey.

“With full hope we want to stay, but if we have to move we will consider it as good,” he said. “Whatever happen, will happen for good.”