Ukrainians refugees in Chicago reflect on 1 year since Russian invasion

CHICAGO (WLS) -- As we approach one year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several local Ukrainians who have experienced the war firsthand reflected on how much their lives have changed.

Olha Tsvyntarna was forced to leave her home in Kyiv when they came under fire.

"We woke up at five in the morning," she recalled. "My husband woke me up and says, 'They're bombing us, so you have one hours.'"

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In that one hour she grabbed her son, one suitcase, and left on a seven day journey to America. Her husband stayed to fight in the army.

"The terrifying thing was, you don't know what's going to happen in the next moment," she said.

Halia Didula knows the feeling. She spent the first six months of the war in her hometown of Lviv before coming to Chicago on a Fulbright Scholarship.

"I was sure for a few days that I would be killed. There was a few days, there was a lot of information that other cities would be destroyed. I even remember I wrote a last letter and sent it to my friend," she said.

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Pictures show Didula and her family taking refuge in their basement for days while explosions erupted overhead.

"I remember we took everyone into the basement and then again there was an explosion, and then four times again," Didula recalled "I remember we were just praying. Every time something was like this, we were just praying, because you don't know what to say. I'm scared? Everyone is scared."

"No one ever should get used to fear and danger for your friends and relatives that is happening every day," said Nadiia Glavin, whose father is still in Ukraine. "Every morning, waking up to the news, you're scared, you're scared to open your phone."

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Glavin worries about her father every day.

"It's just a feeling that every time you speak to them, you don't know whether you will be able to speak to them again," she said.

Ukrainian attorney Svitlana Ugryn has helped hundreds of refugees resettle in Chicago, and said she's expecting more to arrive.

"I think that more people are going to leave Ukraine, and Europe probably is not able to manage this influx of the new wave of refugees," Ugryn said.

Ukrainians in Chicago are begging their neighbors and Americans as a whole for continued support.

"Every second is more lives lost," Tsvyntarna said.

"We are fighting to protect our country and surrounding countries and the world," said Galvin.

Several marches are planned for this Friday, which marks exactly one year since the Russian invasion.