Local family shares how parents fled Ukraine, calls for US to grant refugee status to Ukrainians

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A local family is sharing the harrowing story of how they were able to get their parents out of Ukraine.

They lived in the capital city of Kyiv and first escaped to a city near the western border, and then on to Warsaw, Poland.

"It was very hard for us to get them out of there," Natasha Stevens said.

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Two sisters - one from St Charles and the other from the Milwaukee area - went to Warsaw to meet their parents, a family friend and two dogs.

"It was very stressful, that's all I can say," Stevens said. "It was very, very stressful."

Volunteers drove their parents from Kyiv to the Polish border. A cousin still in Kyiv retrieved passports that were forgotten in the rush to leave.

Natasha Stevens was able to return through O'Hare four days ago with her mom, who had a tourist visa. But Yaroslava Dunn remains in Poland trying to get a visa for her father. The retired college professor has cancer and doesn't speak Polish. They couldn't leave him alone.

"This has been an extremely challenging experience for us, Leah, and we realize we are one of the more lucky ones," Dunn said.

Friday they have an appointment to try to get a tourist visa for their father. The sisters want the U.S. to grant refugee status to Ukrainians so Americans can host loved ones or strangers fleeing the war more quickly.

"How is it possible that the system is not anyhow expedited taking into consideration that there is full blown war?" Dunn said.

Her father added in Ukrainian as his daughter translated: "I hope that Ukraine will win. At least I hope they will not lose, they won't give up. But I know this victory will be paid with blood."

Their mother, Natalya, is a children's book author. She says she's begun writing a story about what's happening in Ukraine, and she wants the fairy tale ending to be true for her family and for other Ukrainian families.