SUGAR LAND, Texas — A family in Sugar Land is expecting another sleepless night while their family remains in Ukraine.
They say their relatives are frightened and unsure what will happen next.
KHOU 11's Matt Dougherty spoke with the family. The husband is from Russia and his wife is from Ukraine.
The lives of their family members were turned upside down over the course of one week.
“You’re feeling like you want to help but you don’t know how, where to go, where to call, what to do,” Natalia said.
Natalia says she speaks with her parents in Ukraine each morning online.
“They’re terrified,” she said.
And so is the rest of the family.
“Imagine thinking every time you’re speaking to your family this could possibly be the last time you speak to them,” husband Vasili said.
His stepmother is currently in Kyiv.
Vasili says nobody on either side of the conflict wants this to be happening.
“The people feel bad on one side, Russians for Ukrainians, Ukrainians for Russians, a lot of them don’t support this,” Vasili said. “They don’t want this to be happening, but they can only do so much. The government is that strong there.”
Now that Ukrainian men have been told they will have to stay in the country and fight if needed, the rest of their families don’t want to leave.
“So, it’s like to go over here with my daughter and leave my husband, and the kids they don’t want to leave their dad,” Vasili said. “Families being divided and decisions that have to be made that are tearing families apart, not because of anything they’re doing.”