George Rubanenko is a proud Ukrainian American. He grew up in Bakhmut, Ukraine.

“What I loved about living in my city, the city of Bakhmut, was people were nice. It was, you know, a proverbial small town where not a lot of people left,” he said.

He described his upbringing as perfect.

“I had no idea everything would change so much,” he said.

The city has now been obliterated in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. And now Ukrainian refugees who fled to the U.S. could face deportation.

Under the Biden Administration they were granted temporary protected status, giving them the opportunity to work and access to public assistance and identification cards. Back in January the outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary extended it to October of 2026.

But now President Donald Trump is considering revoking those privileges, affecting 240,000 Ukrainians in the U.S.

During a recent press conference, Trump said he’s weighing options. He said, “There were some people that think that’s appropriate and some people don’t, and I’ll be making a decision pretty soon. But, we’re not looking to hurt them, especially Ukrainians. They've gone through a lot."

Rubanenko said his heart goes out to Ukrainian refugees who fled to America and who now may not be afforded the same opportunity as him.

“A lot of them frankly have nowhere to go, because their homes, you can see their homes are destroyed,” he said.“A lot of them frankly have nowhere to go, because their homes, you can see their homes are destroyed,” he said.

He came to America in 1996 on a scholarship for graduate school. In 2012 he became a U.S. citizen and started a family and a lineage of tennis champions.

He watched the destruction of the war on television, even seeing part of his childhood destroyed. The apartment where he grew up in Bakhmut remains only a shell after Russian bombings.

“That’s where my parents lived since 1968,” he said pointing to video remnants of their old home.

To do his part, even though to him it seems comparatively small, he’s housed refugee families.

“None of the people that we housed live here,” he said. “They all are trying to build their lives. They all are trying to live the American dream.”

That’s why he calls the idea to take away protected status an unnecessary move against people who just want to become productive members of society.

“Protective status gives them the ability to work,” he said. “They don’t want to rely on public assistance if they don’t need to.”

Rubanenko has housed three different families since the Russia-Ukraine War broke out in 2022.