Ukrainian-Americans scared for family in Ukraine, say people in the country urgently need food and medicine

[dafengche]

Americans with family in Ukraine are desperately searching for a way to help their loved ones.

Kristina Boroday and Dmytro Teterev, a Ukrainian-American couple living in San Diego, say most of their family is still in Ukraine and they need shelter and security.

“I talk to them every morning, every night. Sometimes I will wake up in the middle of the night because I can't sleep, so I texted them. I call them. I make sure that they are alive. I make sure that they are safe. So, all I'm hearing from them is that we need help, we need shelter, we need some kind of certainty that we are going to be safe. They don't have that,” Boroday said. 

Teterev said his family face an impossible decision about whether to stay or leave.

"It's a day by day, hour by hour situation," he said. "I'm living in two time zones. One is primarily the Ukrainian time zone and then one out here. I just care for their safety. I do whatever it takes."

Boroday said her immediate family are staying put "because that is their home."

But her other family members, "are unable to escape, even if they could, because they don't even know if they are going to get bombed or a rocket is going to fly over their head while they are driving to the border. So, it's just those conversations that — are we going to be safe if we even try to escape?" she said. 

Teterev said he's been working with volunteer groups to try and get first aid kits and other supplies into the country but even sending money to Ukraine is an issue, "because there's not a way to access that money." Boroday urged people to donate what they could as people in Ukraine urgently need supplies like food and medicine.

"Yes money will help but they need supplies," she said. "They are not getting food delivered into the country. They are not getting medicine delivered into their country ... they need to get the supplies over to them, so they have something to live off of."