Ukrainian woman misses her husband and life left behind nearly 1 year after relocating to Brooklyn
NEW YORK -- It has been one year since Russian troops entered Ukraine, and while many there are living a new reality, others - mostly women - were forced to leave and start a new life in other countries, including here in the United States.
CBS2's Jennifer Bisram spoke with one woman who made the move from Kyiv to Brooklyn.
"I think my life was successful and happy, with my husband, with my favorite job, with my team, with my friends," Kateryna Vynohradova told Bisram.
It all changed on a fateful February day in 2022 when Russian troops entered Ukraine, setting off missiles and air strikes.
"I was scared. I cried all the time. I have a panic attack," Vynohradova said.
The constant sound of gunshots and war could be heard day and night from the 35-year old's Kyiv apartment.
"We created some safe place between two walls in the hall of our apartment," she said.
That's where she and her husband spent most of their time, taking shelter, many times without food and electricity.
"It was like something unreal," she said.
After two months of fear and uncertainty, her husband, desperately trying to save her life, asked her to flee the war zone for her safety.
"He said to me, 'Everything will be perfect. You should do this. I love you, and see you,'" she said. "I cried so bad, and I think I was broken, totally broken."
She heavy-heartedly left her motherland, boarding a train to Poland where thousands of other women and children - some without parents - were desperately trying to leave , too. Eventually, she flew to the U.S., without her husband.
"The men have to stay," she said. "They need to protect country."
Ever since, she's been working with the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, a group that has helped thousands of women, children and elderly people since the start of the war.
"Spun into action and started sending humanitarian aide, and then we also help to evacuate orphanages and foster family centers to Germany, to Poland, to Turkey," said Alina Zhurbenko, with the UNWLA.
It has been 10 months since Vynohradova left Ukraine, her husband, her mother and her life. She now lives in Brooklyn, where the phone is her only lifeline to her husband. She's longing for the day when she can hug him again.
"It's really hard to start your life here," she said. "I want to have him here with me."
Vynohradova said she applied for work authorization and hopes to get it soon so she can start to work and build a life for her family here. She prays every day her husband will be able to make it out of Ukraine safe.