One entrepreneur tore his ACL and got a draft exemption mere months before Russia laid siege to his city. Another lost contact with a Ukraine-based engineering colleague until he suddenly popped back up on Slack — from Poland. 

These are just some of the stories Ukrainian technologists, founders and associated professionals shared with Technical.ly. They're part of a massive tech workforce that fled to the US, among other countries, to escape a war whose humanitarian and geopolitical impacts stretch from their backyard across the world.

Several interviewees came through a refugee program that the Trump administration recently put on pause. Others, already established in the US before the February 2022 invasion, have dedicated themselves to helping their fellow Ukrainians at home and abroad. Now, as the war grinds on and international negotiations stall, they're navigating tremendous confusion over White House policies and frustration about their future prospects.

Through it all, they're still doing the work for their communities, companies and colleagues. 

Here are their stories.