Kulyk legally entered the U.S. in late 2023 along with his wife, 38, and daughter, who’s now 5. The family was sponsored by U.S. citizens as part of the Uniting 4 Ukraine program, a humanitarian program set up in April 2022 to allow Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war to live and work in the U.S. on “parole.”
Once the initial two-year parole period expires, entrants can file for re-parole to remain in the country longer. That’s exactly what Kulyk says he did. His wife and daughter’s applications were approved. But his remained pending.
He said he was putting groceries in his car on Jan. 1 when he was approached by three ICE agents.
“I explained to the ICE officers that the war was killing people, that my wife had a disability, that it was violence, terrorism which we had escaped from but one of them began to laugh,” Kulyk told The Daily Beast. “I asked why he was laughing and I was told that he was pro-Russian, wanted Russia to win the war.”
I mean, First Blood was loosely based on real-life World War II veteran Audie Murphy’s struggles with PTSD. And it was further informed by the deplorable treatment of protesters at the hands of local police and national guard - many of them returning veterans - during the Vietnam War. The original novel was intended to juxtapose this initial horrifying abuse of a homeless American veteran with the events happening half a world away by a US-sponsored dictatorship.
But reactionaries always forget the first film and fixate on the next four, because it lets Rambo embody the mythological special forces superhuman rather than the Vietcong revolutionary resisting imperial oppression.
Yup. American.