Society
Scholars Visiting US Caught Up in Geopolitical Tensions, Trump Vortex
May 8, 2025
- Yulia ChernayaScience journalist
Based on a roundtable discussion with scholars from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine who are studying in the US, journalist Yulia Chernaya explains what challenges they face and what their prospects are moving forward.
The original text was published in T-Invariant. A shortened version is being republished here with their permission.
The round table was organized by the American Human Rights Russian Speaking Association, which helps immigrants from the former Soviet Union to overcome obstacles to integration into American society and to promote their self-organization and participation in public life, and their junior partner was Liberty Forward, designed to help participants of Fulbright programs: students and young scientists, fellows of the Institute of International Education and Cultural Vistas programs in the US.
The round table was organized by the American Human Rights Russian Speaking Association, which helps immigrants from the former Soviet Union to overcome obstacles to integration into American society and to promote their self-organization and participation in public life, and their junior partner was Liberty Forward, designed to help participants of Fulbright programs: students and young scientists, fellows of the Institute of International Education and Cultural Vistas programs in the US.
Lubov Palchak. Photo: from personal archive
Lubov Palchak, MD at the University of North Carolina
“I lived most of my conscious life in Bakhmut,” Lubov says. “In 2014, when hostilities began on the border of Russia and Ukraine, I was studying in Kharkiv. But I visited my parents in Bakhmut on a regular basis. On one of these visits, in the spring of 2014, a military unit near our house was attacked with grenade launchers. In general, the war in the region was felt long before 2022. The entire railroad connection was disrupted, Bakhmut and various cities around it were under the occupation of the DNR and it was impossible to get there.”
Nevertheless, after graduating from Kharkiv University, Lubov was assigned to a communal pharmacy in Donetsk. But Palchak decided not to work on the assignment; she went to Kyiv. There she successfully completed her internship.
“By this time there was a feeling that the situation was normalizing,” she says. “The Ukrainian authorities had stabilized, business started to return. I had a child. And in 2016 we returned to Bakhmut: there was real estate; comfortable and safe conditions for the whole family.
In 2017, Lubov found a job at the Donetsk Medical University, part of which was located in the buildings of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkivka. It was in Kramatorsk, where the young family eventually moved, that Lubov met February 24, 2022. With her young son, she left for Poland, where she immediately began looking for an opportunity to continue her graduate studies and scientific work. Palchak contacted Alexander Kabanov, a professor at the University of North Carolina. His colleague from Germany offered an internship in his lab while the long process of applying for visas to the US got underway.
“The scientific group accepted me perfectly,” Lubov recalls. “As a Ukrainian refugee, I could stay there for up to five years, get a residence permit and stay. But Eshelman School of Pharmacy better suited my scientific interests, the prospect of applying my knowledge there was higher. And [my academic advisor] Professor Kabanov and I went ahead with the exchange visa.”
It was a nonimmigrant visa for moving to the US: it was assumed that Lubov would return to Ukraine after the internship. But at the interview at the US consulate in Munich, Lubov was refused. She had her small child with her; she did not know whether her house was intact; there were no guarantees that she would return.
Today, Lubov knows for sure that her home is gone. She was able to get to the US and get an opportunity to work at Eshelman School of Pharmacy thanks to the United for Ukraine project. Now, this program is frozen, and it is not clear what will happen to the students who came to the US under it.
Palchak’s studies the development of drug delivery systems. The research group where Lubov is interning is working on drugs that improve therapy for triple-negative breast cancer. In the near term, the group hopes to receive a patent for an invention to which Lubov has made a significant contribution. The work demands a lot of her time and energy. But collecting documents for an immigrant visa also takes a considerable amount of her time.
“I lived most of my conscious life in Bakhmut,” Lubov says. “In 2014, when hostilities began on the border of Russia and Ukraine, I was studying in Kharkiv. But I visited my parents in Bakhmut on a regular basis. On one of these visits, in the spring of 2014, a military unit near our house was attacked with grenade launchers. In general, the war in the region was felt long before 2022. The entire railroad connection was disrupted, Bakhmut and various cities around it were under the occupation of the DNR and it was impossible to get there.”
Nevertheless, after graduating from Kharkiv University, Lubov was assigned to a communal pharmacy in Donetsk. But Palchak decided not to work on the assignment; she went to Kyiv. There she successfully completed her internship.
“By this time there was a feeling that the situation was normalizing,” she says. “The Ukrainian authorities had stabilized, business started to return. I had a child. And in 2016 we returned to Bakhmut: there was real estate; comfortable and safe conditions for the whole family.
In 2017, Lubov found a job at the Donetsk Medical University, part of which was located in the buildings of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkivka. It was in Kramatorsk, where the young family eventually moved, that Lubov met February 24, 2022. With her young son, she left for Poland, where she immediately began looking for an opportunity to continue her graduate studies and scientific work. Palchak contacted Alexander Kabanov, a professor at the University of North Carolina. His colleague from Germany offered an internship in his lab while the long process of applying for visas to the US got underway.
“The scientific group accepted me perfectly,” Lubov recalls. “As a Ukrainian refugee, I could stay there for up to five years, get a residence permit and stay. But Eshelman School of Pharmacy better suited my scientific interests, the prospect of applying my knowledge there was higher. And [my academic advisor] Professor Kabanov and I went ahead with the exchange visa.”
It was a nonimmigrant visa for moving to the US: it was assumed that Lubov would return to Ukraine after the internship. But at the interview at the US consulate in Munich, Lubov was refused. She had her small child with her; she did not know whether her house was intact; there were no guarantees that she would return.
Today, Lubov knows for sure that her home is gone. She was able to get to the US and get an opportunity to work at Eshelman School of Pharmacy thanks to the United for Ukraine project. Now, this program is frozen, and it is not clear what will happen to the students who came to the US under it.
Palchak’s studies the development of drug delivery systems. The research group where Lubov is interning is working on drugs that improve therapy for triple-negative breast cancer. In the near term, the group hopes to receive a patent for an invention to which Lubov has made a significant contribution. The work demands a lot of her time and energy. But collecting documents for an immigrant visa also takes a considerable amount of her time.
“Lubov admits that now she is facing an acute choice: pursue her work or collect documents to be able to work.”
“My doctoral studies will be completed by the autumn 2027. The status that allows me to stay in the US expires in the autumn of 2026. It is impossible to extend it under the United for Ukraine program: the program was frozen by the administration of the current president,” Lubov sums up. “What will happen if I return to Ukraine? The war continues, medical and pharmacological research is impossible. Most likely I will have to serve in the army.”
Another problem is that the city where Lubov lived is now under Russian control and she is unwilling to become a Russian citizen.
Lubov’s advisor, Kabanov, notes that her story cannot be called unique, but her situation is not even the worst. Many Ukrainians in the US have permits expiring already this year, and what they should do next is unclear. Kabanov pointed out that there are not so many Ukrainians in the US – about 200,000.
Kabanov admits he is disappointed not only with the Trump administration but also with the Biden administration: “When the exodus of scientists from Ukraine and Russia began, Biden urged us to accept all the brains we could. But it was unrealistic. Getting a visa to the US is very difficult for both Russian and Ukrainian scientists. Good specialists, whether they are Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians or anyone else, are a great asset to the economy. But we are losing them. Biden did nothing to retain such specialists, and Trump is doing nothing. I never tire of telling our congressmen that.”
Another problem is that the city where Lubov lived is now under Russian control and she is unwilling to become a Russian citizen.
Lubov’s advisor, Kabanov, notes that her story cannot be called unique, but her situation is not even the worst. Many Ukrainians in the US have permits expiring already this year, and what they should do next is unclear. Kabanov pointed out that there are not so many Ukrainians in the US – about 200,000.
Kabanov admits he is disappointed not only with the Trump administration but also with the Biden administration: “When the exodus of scientists from Ukraine and Russia began, Biden urged us to accept all the brains we could. But it was unrealistic. Getting a visa to the US is very difficult for both Russian and Ukrainian scientists. Good specialists, whether they are Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians or anyone else, are a great asset to the economy. But we are losing them. Biden did nothing to retain such specialists, and Trump is doing nothing. I never tire of telling our congressmen that.”
Tatiana Gabriichuk. Photo: from personal archive
Tatiana Gabriichuk, master’s student in public administration at Indiana University
Gabriichuk came to the US in 2023 and became the last Russian Fulbright scholar at the university. She has only one semester left of her master’s degree in public and environmental affairs, where Tatiana specializes in the sustainability of local public services (e.g., 911, fire departments) and the restoration of war-torn cities.
Gabriichuk says she has faced pressure from the Russian authorities her entire academic career. On the day she was defending her graduation paper at St Petersburg State University, her supervisor was fired for her political views. Her first international master’s program, in human rights and democratic governance, at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow was closed in April 2022 for political reasons.
The second international master’s program she entered, called Energy Policy in Eurasia (ENERPO), at the European University in St Petersburg was also canceled.
Tatiana cooperated with five different organizations recognized as “undesirable” in Russia. Participation in the activities of such an organization can lead to imprisonment of up to four years.
Gabriichuk came to the US in 2023 and became the last Russian Fulbright scholar at the university. She has only one semester left of her master’s degree in public and environmental affairs, where Tatiana specializes in the sustainability of local public services (e.g., 911, fire departments) and the restoration of war-torn cities.
Gabriichuk says she has faced pressure from the Russian authorities her entire academic career. On the day she was defending her graduation paper at St Petersburg State University, her supervisor was fired for her political views. Her first international master’s program, in human rights and democratic governance, at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow was closed in April 2022 for political reasons.
The second international master’s program she entered, called Energy Policy in Eurasia (ENERPO), at the European University in St Petersburg was also canceled.
Tatiana cooperated with five different organizations recognized as “undesirable” in Russia. Participation in the activities of such an organization can lead to imprisonment of up to four years.
“The Fulbright program that brought Tatiana to the US was declared ‘undesirable’ in Russia in 2023. Receiving money from it (including scholarships) and participating in its activities is a criminal offense under Russian law.”
“The Fulbright program was supposed to be a bridge for us, an opportunity to build mutual understanding between peoples,” Gabriichuk says. “But for Russian Fulbrighters, that bridge has been burned. Our participation in the program is considered a criminal offense in Russia. Our legal status in the US became precarious.”
Tatiana left Russia on February 24, 2022, just after the start of the Russian invasion, and joined the antiwar organization Russians Against War Antalya (recognized as “undesirable” in Russia), where she helped Ukrainian refugees. In Turkey, however, she met her future husband, a Belarusian citizen, who is now in the US with her on a J-2 visa.
“My husband’s situation is even more complicated,” she says. “In Belarus, he was facing jail time because of political persecution. As a result, he is in the US on a Russian Fulbright visa as a family member. This adds another layer of complexity to our already-complicated case. According to Tatiana, getting political asylum in the US was unexpectedly difficult because Tatiana’s husband had briefly lived in Poland and Turkey. The US authorities believe that he could return to live in one of these countries instead. But this would require decent savings, and the couple does not have any.
Now, on the advice of a Fulbright consultant, Tatiana plans to complete postgraduate training that will allow her and her husband to remain in the US until August 2026. During that time, Tatiana hopes to get an exemption from the two-year requirement (under the J-1 visa rules, all exchange program participants must return to their home countries for at least two years after completing their studies) and switch to another immigrant visa. But as she began to move forward with this seemingly sound plan, Tatiana encountered a number of unpleasant surprises.
“For example, I was accepted into a joint US-German project, and I was supposed to travel to Germany as part of that project,” she says. “But the Fulbright advisor strongly advised me not to leave the US until I finished my studies. I might not be allowed to come back. So I had to refuse.”
Violetta Soboleva, director of Liberty Forward, graduate student in educational psychology at the City University of New York
Violetta Soboleva says that Gabriichuk is far from the only Fulbright scholar who has found herself in a similar situation.
“We have been advised by our consultants from the Institute of International Education and people associated with Fulbright not to stay in the US and not to return to Russia,” Soboleva says. “But we have signed documents with the obligation to return to Russia after the exchange program.”
She claims the Fulbright program management does not care for the needs of the fellows: “They are rather trying to get rid of us, they want to silence us. The only thing they did was to remove the list of fellows from the program’s web page. They feel that in this way they have taken care of our safety.
Tatiana left Russia on February 24, 2022, just after the start of the Russian invasion, and joined the antiwar organization Russians Against War Antalya (recognized as “undesirable” in Russia), where she helped Ukrainian refugees. In Turkey, however, she met her future husband, a Belarusian citizen, who is now in the US with her on a J-2 visa.
“My husband’s situation is even more complicated,” she says. “In Belarus, he was facing jail time because of political persecution. As a result, he is in the US on a Russian Fulbright visa as a family member. This adds another layer of complexity to our already-complicated case. According to Tatiana, getting political asylum in the US was unexpectedly difficult because Tatiana’s husband had briefly lived in Poland and Turkey. The US authorities believe that he could return to live in one of these countries instead. But this would require decent savings, and the couple does not have any.
Now, on the advice of a Fulbright consultant, Tatiana plans to complete postgraduate training that will allow her and her husband to remain in the US until August 2026. During that time, Tatiana hopes to get an exemption from the two-year requirement (under the J-1 visa rules, all exchange program participants must return to their home countries for at least two years after completing their studies) and switch to another immigrant visa. But as she began to move forward with this seemingly sound plan, Tatiana encountered a number of unpleasant surprises.
“For example, I was accepted into a joint US-German project, and I was supposed to travel to Germany as part of that project,” she says. “But the Fulbright advisor strongly advised me not to leave the US until I finished my studies. I might not be allowed to come back. So I had to refuse.”
Violetta Soboleva, director of Liberty Forward, graduate student in educational psychology at the City University of New York
Violetta Soboleva says that Gabriichuk is far from the only Fulbright scholar who has found herself in a similar situation.
“We have been advised by our consultants from the Institute of International Education and people associated with Fulbright not to stay in the US and not to return to Russia,” Soboleva says. “But we have signed documents with the obligation to return to Russia after the exchange program.”
She claims the Fulbright program management does not care for the needs of the fellows: “They are rather trying to get rid of us, they want to silence us. The only thing they did was to remove the list of fellows from the program’s web page. They feel that in this way they have taken care of our safety.
Daria Nefedova and Denis Vavaev. Photo: from personal archive
Another member of Liberty Forward, Denis Vavaev, reminds of the statement by Sergei Naryshkin, director of Russian foreign intelligence, who named seven programs, including Fulbright, that are training a “fifth column.” In addition to Fulbright, Cultural Vistas, which has never even had an office in Russia, was added to the list of “undesirable” organizations.
“We would like to do good in our home country, but it is really dangerous to return to Russia,” says Denis.
A Fulbright student from Myanmar, Mon Soe, is in the same boat: “I am not from Ukraine, Belarus or Russia, but I am going through similar problems. If I return to my home country, I will immediately be drafted into the army and forced to fight against my own people: we have a civil war going on. About 400 students will be forced to return to Myanmar after USAID funding is frozen. What we would like to do is not to fight, but to do science!”
According to a former US Citizenship and Immigration Services official who wished to remain anonymous, USCIS processes more than 10 million requests a year, and there is much more work than people to do it. Therefore, in his opinion, long consideration periods, inarticulate responses and delays may be related not to political decisions of the leadership but rather to a banal shortage of people. The queue for the “return home waiver,” including the waiver of the two-year rule, whereby Fulbright program participants must return to their home country and work there for two years, is too long.
Leave or seek political asylum?
After the roundtable, Liberty Forward representatives Daria Nefedova and Denis Vavaev shared some happy news: “we have contact with the State Department. We managed to set up a track to remove the two-year rule,” shares Denis. “As a result, the processing time for Fulbrighters has been reduced to 5-6 months instead of 18 months like everyone else. Apparently, the State Department and USCIS have reached an internal agreement that there are risks for Fulbrighters in Russia, but our cases are actually managed manually. However, this system applies only to the Fulbright program. And the cases of participants in YEAR (Year of Exchange in America for Russians) are still considered as usual.”
To date, since the beginning of Trump’s presidency, eight Fulbrighters have been exempted from the two-year rule.
“It’s another thing that removing the two-year rule does not completely solve our problem,” Denis says. “Yes, we do not have to go to our home country anymore, but we do not have the status that will allow us to stay in the US. We can apply for a work visa, but it may take two years to get it. And there is no legal basis to stay in the US during that time. We have to either leave or apply for asylum. And getting political asylum is an even longer process. For scientists, this way is also bad because they cannot leave the country during the entire waiting period, which means no trips to other laboratories, no international conferences and seminars.”
So far, Liberty Forward works only with Russians, but Belarusians and even some Ukrainians turn to them for help with their problems.
“We would like to do good in our home country, but it is really dangerous to return to Russia,” says Denis.
A Fulbright student from Myanmar, Mon Soe, is in the same boat: “I am not from Ukraine, Belarus or Russia, but I am going through similar problems. If I return to my home country, I will immediately be drafted into the army and forced to fight against my own people: we have a civil war going on. About 400 students will be forced to return to Myanmar after USAID funding is frozen. What we would like to do is not to fight, but to do science!”
According to a former US Citizenship and Immigration Services official who wished to remain anonymous, USCIS processes more than 10 million requests a year, and there is much more work than people to do it. Therefore, in his opinion, long consideration periods, inarticulate responses and delays may be related not to political decisions of the leadership but rather to a banal shortage of people. The queue for the “return home waiver,” including the waiver of the two-year rule, whereby Fulbright program participants must return to their home country and work there for two years, is too long.
Leave or seek political asylum?
After the roundtable, Liberty Forward representatives Daria Nefedova and Denis Vavaev shared some happy news: “we have contact with the State Department. We managed to set up a track to remove the two-year rule,” shares Denis. “As a result, the processing time for Fulbrighters has been reduced to 5-6 months instead of 18 months like everyone else. Apparently, the State Department and USCIS have reached an internal agreement that there are risks for Fulbrighters in Russia, but our cases are actually managed manually. However, this system applies only to the Fulbright program. And the cases of participants in YEAR (Year of Exchange in America for Russians) are still considered as usual.”
To date, since the beginning of Trump’s presidency, eight Fulbrighters have been exempted from the two-year rule.
“It’s another thing that removing the two-year rule does not completely solve our problem,” Denis says. “Yes, we do not have to go to our home country anymore, but we do not have the status that will allow us to stay in the US. We can apply for a work visa, but it may take two years to get it. And there is no legal basis to stay in the US during that time. We have to either leave or apply for asylum. And getting political asylum is an even longer process. For scientists, this way is also bad because they cannot leave the country during the entire waiting period, which means no trips to other laboratories, no international conferences and seminars.”
So far, Liberty Forward works only with Russians, but Belarusians and even some Ukrainians turn to them for help with their problems.
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