In Pennsylvania, Ukrainian-Americans grapple with overseas war and how to vote

At first glance, Carnegie, Pennsylvania, looks like any other Rust Belt suburb — there’s a Family Dollar store, a trendy coffee shop, an Irish pub and an ice cream parlor all in a four-block strip along Main Street, some five miles outside downtown Pittsburgh.
But two colorful structures situated just off the northeast side of town stand out from the otherwise drab suburban sprawl: St. Peter & St. Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church, its three golden spires glimmering in the sun, and next door’s Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church, where royal blue onion domes sit atop large stained-glass windows.
Just around the corner from the Eastern European religious square of sorts sits the Ukrainian-American Citizens Club, a mostly underwhelming building save for the blue-and-yellow flag flying alongside the stars and stripes near the entrance.
Around noon on a Thursday in mid-October, the club was nearly empty, with just a few regulars chatting at the bar. The smell of cigarettes wafted through the dimly lit space; intricately painted Ukrainian figurines adorned the walls.
“Carnegie is actually somewhat of a Ukrainian center of immigration and community life in Pittsburgh,” said Stephen Haluszczak, a softspoken 60-something who runs the Ukrainian Cultural and Humanitarian Institue and is the author of “
,” a history of his community told through images.
“It’s a very close-knit community,” echoed his sister Melissa, a client manager at a communications infrastructure company. “We have a dance group in the area, and it’s just always been a very close community, supporting each other at fairs and festivals and just anything related to Ukraine.”
There are about 113,000 Ukrainian-Americans like the Haluszczaks living in Pennsylvania, according to the latest census figures — many more than the 80,000 votes President Joe Biden won the state with in 2020. It’s a deeply religious community and, historically, a conservative one.
“Those people were, and still are, very Republican, very politically conservative because they were very anti-communist,” said Dr. Paula Holoviak, a professor of political science at Kutztown University near Allentown who researches the state’s Ukrainian population and is a member of a local Ukrainian dance troupe.
But there are signs that could be changing this election cycle. Former President Donald Trump’s public affection for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Vice President Kamala Harris’ concerted efforts to woo Republican voters to her side, could bring about a major shift in the group’s voting patterns — one that could have significant implications for the presidential race.
“We are American first, but we are Ukrainian by heritage,” said Melissa Haluszczak. “I’m very surprised and disappointed that President Trump hasn’t been more strong. He basically said, ‘Oh, I’ll negotiate peace.’ But what is the cost? How much will Ukrainians have to give up?”
For Ukrainian-Americans in Carnegie, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 changed everything.
“’Till the war happened, I pretty much took my Ukrainian culture for granted,” said Shirley Shabaturra-Duffy, a retired attorney and adjunct professor. “It just was a wake-up call to me that my people were set out to be exterminated by Putin … So, you know, I’ve woken up. I don’t take it for granted. I know that there are forces that would exterminate it, and I will do whatever I can to prevent that from happening.”
Duffy, a Democrat, is now volunteering with the Harris-Walz campaign to encourage other Ukrainian-Americans to support the vice president. A campaign official told Scripps News their team hosts weekly Ukrainian-American phone banks and has organized several events throughout the state aimed specifically at turning out Eastern European voters.
“I have many friends, not only in the Ukrainian community but in the larger Slavic community, who are watching the situation in Ukraine and [are] very fearful for their native countries,” Shabaturra-Duffy said.
During her time in office, and especially since she became the Democratic nominee for president, Harris has sharpened her rhetoric about Ukraine, attesting to her belief in the importance of a united NATO front standing against Russian aggression and blasting Trump’s approach to the conflict.
“Trump wants to force Ukraine to give up its sovereign territory,” Harris told a crowd of supporters at a campaign stop in Wisconsin earlier in October. “That’s not a plan for peace. It’s a plan for surrender.”
Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly boasted that he’d end the conflict on day one — though he’s provided no concrete explanation as to how he’d do so.
And when pressed, the former president has dodged answering whether he believes Ukraine should hold onto all its territory or offer concessions in exchange for Russia’s retreat.
“Do you believe it’s in the U.S. best interests for Ukraine to win this war? Yes or no?” asked ABC News’ David Muir during the one and only presidential election debate.
“I think it’s in the U.S. best interest to get this war finished and just get it done,” Trump responded.
That exchange stuck with many in Carnegie.
“How could you call for just having a peace settlement when the aggressor gets to keep their land that they took?” mused an exasperated Stephen Haluszczak.
“Ukrainians are bleeding. Americans are not. We don’t want our fellow Americans to bleed. That’s why we need to support Ukraine” said George Honchar, a retired soil scientist who serves on the local school board.
Honchar grew up in Carnegie speaking Ukrainian with his immigrant grandparents. His wife is from Chernobyl, his daughter was adopted from an orphanage in Bakhmut, a city
Reflecting on the first days of the invasion, his deep voice melted into gentle sobs as he wiped tears from his face.
“It’s very upsetting, very emotional. There are families there, friends, even people you don’t know,” Melissa interjected. “The concern is overwhelming.”
In the weeks and months following Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian-Americans in Carnegie and throughout the Commonwealth mobilized, raising money for aid, hosting vigils at the church and even traveling to Ukraine to support humanitarian causes. Stephen Haluszczak’s nonprofit group says it’s raised over $250 million to support children impacted by the conflict, and he’ll soon be traveling to Ukraine to see the fruits of that work firsthand.
The Carnegie community has also ferociously advocated for military aid packages — the kind many Republicans in Congress have come to oppose.
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate, has emerged as one of the foremost voices arguing against sending aid to Ukraine.
“I do not think that it is in America’s interest to continue to fund an effectively never-ending war in Ukraine,” Vance in May. Shortly before Russia’s invasion, he told the far-right Trump confidant Steve Bannon, “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”
That view remains hotly debated, even within the Republican party. Over the summer, Advancing American Freedom (AAF) — a policy advocacy organization started by former Vice President Mike Pence –
sharing a conservative case for sending more aid to Ukraine, arguing that doing so would counter Chinese influence and transnational Russian criminals.
“At a time when some on the right suggest that Americans have more in common with Vladimir Putin than they do the Ukrainian people,” a senior official with AAF told Scripps News, “we think [arming Ukraine]’s both the right thing to do, and it’s also strategically important.”
In an interview with Scripps News, a Trump campaign official defended opposition to Ukraine aid. “Us throwing another, you know, $80 billion or $800 billion dollars, isn’t going to change certain ground realities between the Russia-Ukraine situation,” the official said.
But the Pennsylvania Ukrainians didn’t share that view.
“Ukraine must be supported until they go over the goal line, until the war is over, until there is a just peace,” Honchar told Scripps News. “I’m troubled, especially from some people in my own party who are ready to give up on helping Ukraine. I’m disappointed in them.”
Ukrainian-American voters’ disdain for Trump’s approach to the conflict is clear.
“There’s no Ukrainian American that is in favor of a free Ukraine who is going to vote for Donald Trump. It’s just not going to happen,” Holoviak said bluntly.
But whether that sentiment will translate into votes for Harris is another question altogether.
Speaking with Scripps News, Honchar of his own volition directly implored Trump to come out in support of Ukraine more forcefully.
“President Trump, if you hear this, there are a lot of my friends that will not vote at all next month if you continue to not support publicly Ukraine,” he said. “I’m asking President Trump: please, please support Ukraine publicly.”
Nonetheless, Honchar said he plans to vote for Trump in November, whether or not the former president heeds his pleas.
“I’m looking at who is best for America when I finally go into my polling place, and that will have to be President Trump,” Honchar said.
The Trump campaign official argued their team’s message to Ukrainian-Americans is the same as Trump’s pitch to all other voters: “Are you better off than you were four years ago.”
“There’s a very clear record of peace and stability under President Trump, and a very clear record of the opposite under this current administration that Kamala Harris is seeking to extend by the four years,” the official added.
The Harris team, conversely, says very it’s specifically targeting Ukrainian-Americans on foreign policy issues, seeking to convert Trump skeptics to Harris supporters.
“Ukrainians across Pennsylvania are fearful of what a second Trump presidency will mean for Ukraine and are drawn to Kamala Harris’ vision of responsible, steady leadership both at home and abroad,” a Harris-Walz campaign official told Scripps News.
Former Rep. Jim Greenwood, a Republican who represented the Philadelphia suburbs in the House for 12 years and now supports Harris, has argued the Vice President’s contrast with Trump on Ukraine appeals to all Republicans – not just Ukrainian-Americans.
“A vote for Harris and her running mate Tim Walz is a vote for America’s and Ukraine’s interests in Europe, while a vote for Trump and Vance favors Russia and enables Putin’s ongoing war of aggression,”
in the
earlier this month.
Greenwood told Scripps News his pitch to Republicans has focused on the fact that Harris may govern more as a moderate, while Trump, unburdened by another general election, would be extreme.
“Kamala Harris from day one will know that the next election has started, and for her to be able to get elected another time against somebody who actually may be a stronger candidate than Trump, she has to do demonstrate that she is willing to reach across the aisle and be accepting of moderate compromises,” he said.
Even so, many Ukrainian-Americans say they may just sit this race out altogether.
“I voted for President Trump twice, I gave very generously to Republican Party,” Stephen Haluszczak said, noting he was speaking in his personal capacity and not on behalf of his nonprofit group.
“It is torture to decide. I’ve never in my life not known who I was going to vote for for President. But maybe I just don’t vote for president at all.”