Flames and smoke billow from buildings during mass Russian drones and missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital in July 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Oleksii Filippov/AFP via Getty Images
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The United States deported 50 individuals to Ukraine this week, marking the largest deportation to Ukraine since the country’s conflict with Russia.
The flight arrived near the Polish border early on Monday. Since the start of Russia’s invasion in 2022, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported a total of 105 Ukrainians, with 13 deportations in the last quarter of 2024, according to data from ICE’s publicly available tracker.
The initial plan was to deport 80 individuals on the flight, according to Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States. The list included at least one individual who Ukraine had previously been unable to claim as a citizen.
It remains unclear why only 50 individuals were deported to Ukraine out of the original 80 on the list.
Concerns have been raised by immigration lawyers about the deportees potentially being drafted to fight in the war. All men aged 25 to 60 in Ukraine are eligible for conscription, with some women and younger individuals also volunteering. While U.S. law allows for deportations, international laws prohibit deportations to countries where individuals may face violence, persecution, or torture.
The Trump administration has made agreements with countries known for human rights abuses or facing conflict, such as South Sudan, Libya, Eswatini, Rwanda, and El Salvador, to receive deportees from the U.S. as part of increased deportation efforts.
According to lawyers, six of the eight men deported to South Sudan are still there, while those sent to the other countries have been imprisoned there.
“Border guards have completed the necessary registration for the deportees’ entry into Ukraine in accordance with the law,” said Andrii Demchenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Border Service. “It is important to note that Ukraine will accept its citizens under any circumstances.”
The embassy did not provide details on the fate of the deportees upon their arrival in Ukraine.
“Deportation is a standard legal procedure under immigration laws worldwide,” Stefanishyna stated in a release to NPR. “It applies to all foreign nationals and stateless persons who violate their stay terms in the United States, regardless of nationality.”
One migrant first profiled by NPR fought immediate deportation
Eric Lee, an immigration lawyer representing an individual on the flight, highlighted that many of the deportees have lived in the U.S. since childhood.
“Some have spouses and children who are U.S. citizens. Some don’t speak Ukrainian, and others are not even Ukrainian citizens, having been born in the Soviet Union before Ukraine’s independence,” Lee explained.
One of Lee’s clients, Roman Surovtsev, faced deportation to Ukraine despite ongoing legal efforts to prevent it.
Court filings revealed that the administration had planned to deport Surovtsev, but a last-minute immigration court decision halted the deportation, allowing for his case to be reconsidered.
Surovtsev, who resided in Dallas with his American wife and children, arrived in the U.S. as a refugee but lost his green card due to a juvenile conviction. Despite efforts to reinstate his green
