GREENSBORO, N.C. — Galina Sokolsky said she wanted her sister to leave Ukraine long before Russia invaded the country.
"I really told my sister to get out before that. I was warning her. I sent her money. I wanted her to buy a ticket to go somewhere," Sokolsky said.
Sokolsky moved from Ukraine to Winston-Salem in the 1990s. Now she lives in Greensboro. Her older sister and niece live in Kharkiv, about 300 miles from the Ukrainian capital. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Sokolsky immediately video called her sister.
"They showed me from their window on the sixth floor and I saw the bombs just kind of in the far distance, but you could see them," Sokolsky said. "It was early in the morning, the sky was so red. It wasn’t red because of the sun coming up but it was just red because of the fire everywhere."
Her sister and niece had to take shelter in a cold subway station for the night.
"I just wanted them to get out and I’m trying to figure out how to help them, what to do and I can’t do anything," Sokolsky said. "
A chance for a better life brought Sokolsky to the United States more than two decades ago. She said her father pushed her to leave eastern Europe for America.
"I always wanted to have freedom," she said. "I had a little girl when I came here, she was five years old and I wanted her to have a better life."
Sokolsky is hoping there continues to be internet in Ukraine so she can stay in contact with her family and also friends she still has overseas.
"I just want her to come here so bad. I would give her my room," Sokolsky said. "I want them to be able to be out of that war,"