'Our world is crumbling': Ukrainians try to flee homes with food, belongings amid Russian invasion
KYIV, Ukraine – "Now, the hell begins," thought Natalia Zabolotna as she awoke Thursday to the sound of a blast in Ukraine's capital that carried up to the 16th floor of her apartment building.
Zabolotna, an art curator who also owns a real estate firm catering to wealthy Ukrainians, immediately thought of her children who were far from the war zone. Her two teenage children were safe in the U.S., studying at private boarding schools.
Following a monthslong buildup of its forces on Ukraine's borders, Russia launched a wide-ranging attack on its neighbor in eastern Europe's predawn hours, with missile strikes and explosions reported near Ukraine's main cities, including Kyiv.
Air-raid sirens blared across Ukraine for hours, and there are unconfirmed reports of military and civilian casualties.
Zabolotna had been preparing for this terrifying moment for weeks. She had packed a suitcase with her clothes and other essentials, including food for her kids' pets, a puppy and a rabbit.
“My relatives are standing in a long line to an ATM right now and I am waiting for them," she told USA TODAY. "Banks close one after another, our world is crumbling."
She said she watched in near disbelief as her fellow Ukrainians packed food and other supplies.
"We are on the verge of devastation,” she said. “I wanted to grab my niece this morning, her little children and drive them to our hometown of Cherkasy (about 100 miles away), but the road was bombed. We are stuck here in Kyiv.”
More:Why is Russia invading Ukraine? Could it be the start of WWIII? Here's what we know
On the outskirts of Severodonetsk, a married couple who only gave their first names, Oksana and Roman, were focused only on saving their two young daughters.
“Explosions woke us up at 5:30 am (local time). We did not have any time to pack, just took our documents, we are going to drive until we run out of gas and energy,” Oksana told USA TODAY at a gas station on the outskirts of Severodonetsk, where they had stopped after fleeing their apartment in a nearby town.
“The blasts were terrifying," Oksana said. "We could not stay." Many of those interviewed did not want to give their full names, fearing for their futures in a country under attack.
A man named Alexander, 40, said he had escaped from Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. He looked lost when he spoke with USA TODAY, saying he had hoped to stay in his hometown and not run away from the advancing Russian army.
"Pokrovsk is a small town, there are no military bases in it. I am sorry, we don’t know what we are going to do,” he said. "We have no place to go to, all our relatives are now there,” he waved in the direction of Russia.
“We are their enemies, and they are ours," he added.
Soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the beginning of the attack early Thursday morning in Moscow, Russian tanks were rolling just outside of Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv.
Natalia Kurdiukova, the founder of an independent media company, scrambled to evacuate her staff from the office.
“Some of our colleagues are on the way to the West, others are stuck on jammed highways and a few are still on the ground in Kharkiv,” Kurdiukova said. “I evacuated my family, my two little children, to Lviv," near Ukraine's border with Poland.
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