ATLANTA — As Russia continues its second week of attacks in Ukraine, two Atlanta women with ties to the same Ukrainian city hope it ends soon.
Tanya Klim spends her days following the news and trying to make sure her family in Ukraine are safe. She says Feb. 24 is a day she will never forget.
"Honestly, I haven't slept for three days when I heard the news because you just can't believe the war, at such a big level can happen in the middle of Europe," she said.
Klim's entire family currently lives in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine and a place that she calls peaceful up until the Russian invasion. One of Klim's comforts is knowing that the city is surrounded by land and not water.
"Cities on the border are getting attacked by the air and on the land, so they struggle the most. Cities that are inside Ukraine, they get attacked only by the air," she said.
Her family's everyday life is now filled with the sound of civil defense sirens. Klim explains that this sound indicates a plane or missile being sent.
"They have 10 minutes to hide themselves in the shelter. Of course, some of these missiles are getting destroyed on the way there and they just get lucky. But how lucky they can get?" she said.
In response to the possible airstrikes, Klim's family stays indoors, only coming out when food is needed. One family member, her brother, is forced to stay in Dnipro instead of leaving with his wife and children.
"My brother, he wants to relocate his wife and two small kids to a safer location. Unfortunately, it's impossible for a single man from age 18 to 60. They can't leave the country. They even can't leave the city because they have to defend the city. So the only option for him is to put his family on the train," said Klim.
This comes after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered a full military mobilization to combat the Russian invasion. Within this military mobilization, all Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are banned from leaving the country, according to Ukraine's state border guard service.
Traveling outside the city is nearly impossible according to Klim who describes getting a space on a bus as "winning a lottery ticket."
Klim and her family pray it all ends soon.
"We are praying that it's all going to end tomorrow, we're all going to be in peace tomorrow. We hope for this every day," she said.
Oleg Westfall helps her friends in Ukraine tell their stories. Nadya Turkova and her son Oleg Turkova tell 11Alive of what they are seeing every day in their city of Dnipro. The interview was made possible with the translation of Westfall.
This is not the first time that a Russian invasion has impacted the Turkova family. Turkova lost her husband, a pastor in 2014 when he was killed during the Russian invasion of Crimea fighting on the front lines.
She spent two years looking for him believing that he had become a prisoner of war before learning the truth.
"So when he was killed, we looked for him for two and a half years. Each day, we were hoping that we will find him, that he was a prisoner of war, that he was in Russian captivity and there was hope that somewhere that he is alive," said Turkova.
Turkova now runs the church her husband operated before his death. It's one of her only comforts during the attacks.
"We comfort ourselves with God. Otherwise, I don't know how we would handle it," she said.
Turkova describes her every day as mostly being within her home due to the possibility of airstrikes.
"You know, we're basically locked in our houses and apartments. We barely go outside. Everybody stays inside because of the siren of the stripe. An assault can happen in a moment, and you don't know if you will have time to reach a safe place for a destination," she said.
The airstrikes have impacted her church, causing service to stop.
"We can't do the services now because sirens are warning about the airstrikes happening constantly," said Turkova.
Turkova and her son will continue their humanitarian efforts with the church and Oleg Turkova will join the military.
"Me and my mother will stay, we will help our soldiers in the hospitals and the wounded. I personally will go to defend Ukraine. I will join the army," he said.
For those in the metro Atlanta area wanting to send help to the Ukrainian people, click here.