Relatives of South Flordians who live in Ukraine are holding out hope that "ordinary people" can help stop the Russian advance.
NBC 6 spoke with two of those relatives by Zoom Monday as they live through the attack on their country from Lviv, on the western part of Ukraine.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE CRISIS
Orest Chebeniak runs a charity organization in the country but he said they are running into challenges in the efforts to help.
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"We are trying here to support them and to supply them with all the food and the necessary munition which we can. We are trying to get it to from our partners abroad and bring it to other eastern cities but it's not easy to do because some roads are blocked," he said through a translator.
Chebeniak said aiding the Ukrainian Army are civilians who in large numbers have been given rifles and instructed how to make Molotov cocktails.
"Ordinary people are organizing themselves to fight against Russian Army. Every city, every town, every village has its territorial forces which consist of ordinary people," Chebeniak said. "And in this way we are helping our army."
Olena Zaruma, a college professor, is witnessing the destruction being brought by the Russians. She said as you move further east across Ukraine the fighting becomes worse.
“Kiev is shelled by rockets, missiles,” she said. "Schools are destroyed. Civilian infrastructure and civilians are killed."
Zaruma said she recently spoke with a friend living in the northeastern part of Ukraine bordering Russia.
"And she’s crying and she said she would have never thought that something like that could happen in her city because the city is being destroyed. It’s shelled and bombarded with the missiles," Zaruma said.
On Monday, a Ukrainian delegation held talks with Russian officials at the border with Belarus, though they ended with no reported agreements aside from plans for further talks.
Chebeniak and Zaruma said history has proven that the Russians can’t be trusted, and said the last five days show that and they expect the battles to continue.
