Three generations of the Popov family gathered for dinner on a late summer night. On the table were homemade dumplings slathered with sour cream, with dill pickles on the side.
“This is Ukrainian pelmeni — inside ground meat, beef and pork mixed,” Illia Popov said. “All my American friends love it.”
Red fish soup made with salmon was also on the menu that evening. The family once lived near the sea in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which is now occupied by Russia.
“God, thank you for this food. Bless us. Amen,” Illia Popov said.
Illia and his wife, Anna, moved to Orange City three years ago with their two sons. Illia’s brother, his wife and their mother live in nearby Alton, where they enjoyed their summer meal of dumplings and soup.
Illia family members are among 150 Ukrainians who relocated to Sioux County after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
“This is a nice place, a safe place, and kind people live here. We are very thankful for this opportunity for us, and we love this place,” Illia said.
Joining them for the first time in years was Maranda Heytsi, who was back in Iowa for a month-long visit. Heytsi grew up in northwest Iowa and attended Bible college in Sweden. While in school, she visited Ukraine during Christmas break and fell in love with the country and a Ukrainian man. They married 20 years ago and now oversee a church in Tyachiv in western Ukraine, along the Romanian border, which is where they met the Popov family.
The Popovs took shelter at Heytsi’s church after fleeing Kyiv in 2022. Then they spent nine months in Germany before coming to America.
“Keep praying for the country, for the people, because I know it’s not much in the news here, but it’s much worse than it was even in the beginning,” Heytsi said about Ukraine. “There’s just an enemy against us at all times.”
Heytsi helped many Ukrainians reach Sioux County through her sister, Martha Hulshof, who arranged local church sponsorships in western Iowa. Heytsi said getting to the U.S. was only part of the challenge. She worries refugees will no longer be welcome.
“It’s becoming a scary thing for the people here, for the Ukrainians that live here, because they’re not sure how they’re going to live. If they’re going to get the authorizations to stay or they have to be turned back,” Heytsi said. "And if they go back, where do they go? They don’t really have a place to go."
For six months this year, Illia and Anna Popov couldn’t work because their paperwork expired. They relied on friends and their church to get by until they could legally hold a job again. Illia is a trained welder who works for an auto body shop, and Anna teaches piano lessons and cleans at her church.
“We have a good community and support of our church,” Anna Popov said. “We felt like we had this protection and weren’t left all by ourselves.”
Other Ukrainians in northwest Iowa face similar uncertainty, and a few have already moved back to Europe.
Heytsi wants people to speak up for Ukrainians who have settled here. Temporary protected status (TPS) for some is scheduled to expire Oct. 19. The program protects Ukrainian immigrants with TPS from being deported.
“I thought Trump would be for Ukraine and would help," Heytsi said. "But I don’t know. It’s just a lot of politics."
The Popovs said they applied for more time through a process called re-parole. With that application delayed, they’re now seeking asylum.
Illia hopes his sons can grow up in Iowa — the place that helped his family start over.
“I’m worried about my children," he said. "I want a good life for them."
Anna said her family wants to build a future in America because they no longer have a home in Ukraine. For now, they savor old traditions, like Ukrainian cuisine, in their new country.
