St. Charles family helping parents flee Ukraine successfully brings them to US
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Yassie Dunn is back home, and this time, her Ukrainian father is with her - and they're safe.
"Tired. Happy. Relieved," Dunn said.
Touching down on American soil has been a weeks-long ordeal, beginning with a tricky pilgrimage to Poland from a war-rocked Ukraine.
Her 78-year-old parents left reluctantly as Kyiv was the only home they'd ever known.
"It's been challenging, but we're here," Dunn said.
"My mother was born in Kyiv, she live all her life in Ukraine," said Dunn's sister, Natasha Stevens. "And unfortunately, they had to pick up. They didn't take anything, just paperwork and two dogs."
ABC7 first reported that the two sisters, one from St. Charles and the other from the Milwaukee area, as many called on the U.S. to grant refugee status to Ukrainians.
As the first missiles erupted in Ukraine, Dunn and her sister flew to Warsaw to try to intercept their fleeing parents, where they safely reunited.
"My mother had a current visa, she had visa. And my dad, unfortunately, didn't have one, so he had to stay a couple more weeks and try to get his visa," Stevens said. "He was granted one last Friday and it took a few more business days for them to stamp it in a passport."
Now they're home too.
RELATED | Ukraine retakes key Kyiv suburb; battle for Mariupol rages
"Very happy, very glad," Dunn said.
The Ukrainian and American family of four will be together again, for now, and for as long as they can.
"He said he will be back very soon, don't know when. The immigration officer asked if he had a ticket to go back and we said not yet, but we will," Dunn added.
