OLATHE, Kan. — As the Russian attacks unfold in Ukraine, here in the Kansas City area there are many in the community who still have family over there.
“After 18 days, I'm still in disbelief," Nataliya Borth, who has family in Ukraine said.
As Borth watched her daughter at ice skating practice in the metro, she says her mind was spinning thousands of miles away, worrying over the destruction back home in Ukraine.
"Every day it's worse, I don't know what's next," she said.
KSHB 41 News spoke with Borth two weeks ago.
"It’s such a burden, when you know someone who you love so much and there’s nothing I can do," Borth said at the time.
And this week, her family continues to be in danger.
"You see hometown and the word bombing next to it, is very, very scary," she said. "They bombed the city of Lutsk and they bombed a military training facility near Lviv and that’s where a majority of my family is.”
Borth said her family was unharmed.
"When I talked to my mom, I think she’s putting on a brave face," Borth said.
But Borth knows that area well.
"I saw images yesterday and one of the craters from the missile was the size of a car somewhere where you used to walk [and] talk, and now a crater-like this," Borth said.
That military base was where she worked as an interpreter alongside NATO representatives.
“I loved it, I felt like I was doing something important," she said. "I was bridging that gap during the Cold War.”
But that cold nostalgia was replaced by intense reality.
“It’s very hard to understand that your country is in the middle of a war and everything that comes with it, there’s absolutely no peace," Borth said. “My message is to stay emotionally invested, this isn’t a war between Ukraine and Russia, this is a war between good and evil.”
KSHB 41 compiled a list of resources dedicated to helping those impacted by the war in Ukraine.
