ATLANTA — 13,822. That's the number of Ukrainians living in Georgia, according to the Georgia branch of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.
Nearly 10,000 of them live in the metro Atlanta area.
One of those, is Yuriy Babak, the vice president of the not-for-profit organization. His whole family is living in Ukraine and staying put as bomb warnings go off on their phones.
“Very stressful, very emotional, and very productive the last 48 hours. Yesterday I slept two hours," he said.
He tries calling his family every 30 minutes to check up on them. He woke up his family when he first found out Ukraine was being attacked.
"Russians attacked Ukraine around 4 a.m., while people trying to peacefully sleep - as we normally do that time of the day," he said. "So I had to wake them up because in their part of Ukraine, the bombs started like two hours later. It's very scary while you dial them and wait for them to answer – your thoughts in your head is like is it too late or are they just sleeping right now?”
His father works at a power plant and has continued to work while Russian forces invade Ukraine by land, air and sea.
"He's like an essential worker, he cannot leave his post because it's a power plant," Babak said. "If they stop working there'll be no power. He is right now doing the shift even though it's extremely dangerous to be there because that's what Russians trying to attack first to destroy the infrastructure.”
His mother has been trying and hoping for safety inside her own home.
"They get the bomb warnings from time to time," he explained. "So it's just like to the basement and up, to the basement, and up."
In between those calls, he's spending all of his time spreading awareness of what's going on in his motherland, and raising funds for the military and civilians there.
“We're talking about surviving right now against second biggest army in the world," he said. "We started raising money pretty much less than 48 hours ago and people are very actively supporting and donating from 20 to thousands of dollars and we really hope that will help people to survive. They need ammunition, lateral weapon, air defense weapon... they need proper banning of Russian government."
Babak, who hasn't been back to Ukraine or seen his loved ones since before the pandemic, hopes the war will be over soon, but fears it's just the beginning.
“What's right now happening is Russia is trying to force Ukraine to love Russia. That's not how it works. If it's not mutual, it's not love. It's abusive relationship there between Russia and Ukraine," he added.
According to its website, the goal of his non-partisan not-for-profit organization is to "promote and expand relationships and mutual understanding through educational, business and humanitarian programs between Ukraine and the United States. Further, we want to preserve our unique Ukrainian cultural heritage for future generation of Americans of Ukrainian descent, who are born here in the U.S., just like generations of Ukrainian Diaspora have done it before us."
Their fundraiser aims to help the Ukraine military and civilians during this war, but he says people - and the government - need to do more.
"We implemented some sanctions but they really don't do nothing so Russia must be disconnected from SWIFT (Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), the personal sanctions that go against the top heads of Russia and their kids - revoke their visas," he urged.
To donate to their fundraiser, click here. According to the organization, they were able to raise $12,900 in one day.
In addition to donating to fundraisers, like theirs, there is an event planned Saturday at noon at Centennial Olympic Park.
It's called Stand With Ukraine, and so far more than 250 people are signed up to attend on Facebook, with more expected to show up.