The U.S. deported 50 people to Ukraine this week, a Ukrainian border official said on Tuesday, in what appears to be the single largest such deportation from the U.S. since the country has been at war with Russia.
The flight landed near the Polish border in the early hours on Monday. Since Russia's invasion in 2022, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported 105 Ukrainians in total, with 13 in the last quarter of 2024, according to the latest data available in ICE's publicly available tracker.
The Trump administration originally wanted to send 80 people on the flight, according to Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine's ambassador to the United States. That original list also included at least one person that Ukraine had previously been unable to claim as a citizen of the country.
It wasn't immediately clear why only 50 people out of the group of 80 ended up in Ukraine.
Immigration lawyers have raised concerns that those deported to Ukraine could be conscripted to fight in the war. All men in Ukraine from ages 25 to 60 are eligible to be drafted, though some women and younger people have also volunteered. While U.S. law permits deportations, including to countries that people are not originally from, domestic and international laws prohibit deportations to place where someone may face violence, persecution or torture.
The Trump administration has brokered deals with countries with notorious human rights records or who are facing conflict, including with South Sudan, Libya, Eswatini, Rwanda and El Salvador, to receive deportees from the United States, as it seeks to ramp up mass deportations.
Six of the 8 men deported to South Sudan over the summer are still there, according to their lawyers, while the Associated Press reported that those sent to the other countries have been imprisoned there.
"Currently, border guards have ensured their registration in the border relation for entry into Ukraine in accordance with the rules established by law," Andrii Demchenko, spokesman for Ukraine's State Border Service, told NPR. "It is worth noting that Ukraine accepts its citizens in any case."
The spokesperson said Ukraine would accept any of its own citizens who had been deported from the U.S.
The embassy did not answer questions regarding what would happen to people deported to the country.
"It should be noted that deportation is a widely used legal mechanism provided for by the immigration laws of most countries around the world," Stefanishyna said in a statement provided to NPR. "It is a routine procedure applied to all foreign nationals and stateless persons who violate the terms of their stay in the United States, regardless of their nationality."
One migrant first profiled by NPR fought immediate deportation
Eric Lee, an immigration lawyer with a client on the flight, said the detainees include people who have lived in the U.S. since they were children.
"Many have U.S. citizen spouses and children. Some do not even speak Ukrainian, and others are not even Ukrainian citizens, having been born in the Soviet Union before Ukraine existed as a separate country," Lee said in an interview.
One of Lee's clients, Roman Surovtsev, was recently transferred through several detention centers in Texas in preparation for the deportation to Ukraine, even as his attorneys continue to fight his removal in court.
According to Justice Department court filings, the administration had intended to put him on the flight. NPR confirmed he ended up not being deported after an immigration court stayed his deportation hours before the flight, while his case was reopened in immigration court.
Surovtsev, who lived in Dallas with his U.S. citizen wife and two children, was born in the Soviet Union. He came to the U.S. as a refugee, but lost his green card when he was a teenager when he pleaded guilty to a carjacking in California.
As NPR has previously reported, the U.S. previously tried and failed to deport Surovtsev to Ukraine, which was unable to provide the necessary travel documents for deportation. For years, Surovtsev completed yearly check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement until he was detained during his visit in August. ICE then tried to give him deportation documents, but those papers were in Ukrainian, a language he does not speak.
His team of lawyers was able to vacate his conviction and move forward with reinstating his green card. Still, Surovtsev has remained in detention.
U.S. District Judge Ada Brown, who was appointed by President Trump, originally blocked Surovtsev's removal earlier this month through Jan. 13 but reversed her decision a few days later, surprising Surovtsev's attorneys.
"He is likely to receive his green card once again very soon. And he has also not been given the opportunity to express his fear of being deported to an active war zone," Lee said.
A DHS spokesperson said in a statement that Surovtesev has already received due process.
"He received full due process and was ordered removed by an immigration judge on November 4, 2014 — over a decade ago," the spokesperson wrote. "Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, if you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S."
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