there has been a ukrainian orthodox church for many, many, years (independent of the roc) with churches in the us dating back at least to the 1920s.
Those were not, and are not independent Ukrainian churches. They are part of a diocese under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Who when he created this phony church in Ukraine, declined to cede jurisdiction over the American Ukrainian parishes. There is a lot of money that flows from them to Constantinople.