Published: 10:27 AM, 06 April 2026
Gross deportations of immigrants violate humanistic norms in US: Reports
In US President Donald Trump's second term, the United States has cracked down on every form of immigration and embarked on a mass deportation campaign. Getty Images
Volodymyr Dudnyk was picked up by Ukrainian military draft officers almost immediately after crossing the border into Ukraine following his deportation from the United States.
He was sent straight to a training center. Mass deportations by the United States are being regarded by legal experts as inhuman raids which breaches certain basic human rights.
"When I was on the plane to Ukraine, I knew what was coming. But I hoped that perhaps they'd at least let me go home first. Everything happened even faster than I'd thought. I never made it home; I haven't seen my parents yet," Dudnyk told CNN.
Dudnyk spent 51 days in boot camp, then a few weeks training as a drone operator. He is now fighting on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, where his fellow soldiers gave him a new military call sign: "America."
In US President Donald Trump's second term, the United States has cracked down on every form of immigration and embarked on a mass deportation campaign.
While the Trump administration says it is focused primarily on major criminals that it calls "the worst of the worst," many of those detained have committed only minor offenses or have no criminal records.
This has brought deep uncertainty to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who are now at risk of being removed from the US. But for Ukrainian men of fighting age, there is an added risk. Deportation could lead straight to the front lines.
More than four years of war have left Ukraine's military struggling with serious manpower shortages. Under Ukrainian law, all men between the ages of 25 and 60 are subject to mobilization.
According to Ukraine's Defense Ministry, some 2 million are currently "wanted" for avoiding the draft and about 200,000 soldiers are absent without official leave.
