Ukrainian Oilfield Hands in North Dakota Fear ‘What Comes Next’

Away from families, their nation in an existential war, for ‘humanitarian parole’ workers laboring in a lonely limbo of uncertainty, Christmas is ‘canceled.’

Frank Parris (L), a shop supervisor, and Igor, a Ukrainian 'humanitarian parole' worker who did not want to speak with The Epoch Times, check inventory at SandPro LLC in Berthold, N.D., on Dec. 19, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

BERTHOLD, North Dakota—Dmytro Tupytsia has Christmas off, but he’d rather be laboring hard that day, “tearing down iron” and building “frack trees” at SandPro, where he’s worked since August.

“For me,” he said, “it is better” than dwelling on how much he misses his wife, 10-year-old daughter, and seven-year-old son eight time zones and more than 5,000 miles away in a town outside Odesa near Ukraine’s border with Moldova.