TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tucsonan Chloe Black spent Sunday night huddled with her neighbors in the lobby of her Kyiv apartment as Russian drones and missiles exploded nearby.
"Someone could hear [missiles] coming, so we would all kind of turtle and then you hear the explosion again,” Black recalled.
She's on her fifth trip to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
"I was upset about the lack of global response," Black said.
She says she had an epiphany after speaking with a Ukranian-American coworker in Tucson.
"You can't really criticize other people if you aren't willing to do something yourself," Black said.
Black spent a few weeks researching before aligning with a volunteer organization and flying over 6,000 miles to Ukraine, where she helped move people and animals from the conflict-ridden Eastern side of the country.
Black says this trip was with non-governmental organization, Ukrainian Patriot, which brought her to the capital city Kyiv just before the overnight attack earlier this week.
“That was the [most scared] I’ve been in my entire life. Hands down. full stop," Black said. "Like what I just experienced is like up close and personal for now, what Ukrainians go through for the last three and a half years."
Ukrainian officials say Sunday's attack killed at least nine people. A day later, Russian strikes on the southeastern city of Dnipro killed another 15 Ukrainians.
Black says she wants those living in Arizona and beyond to know that Ukrainians have been dealing with these attacks on residential areas nearly every day.
She says what surprises her, though, is the resilience of those communities.
When the air-raid sirens die down, she says neighbors get to work sweeping the streets and putting out fires. Those things are now part of their daily routines.
“I’ll see an elderly woman walking with her shopping bags, and I can see my grandma's when they were alive, or I can see my neighbors in Tucson walking from Trader Joe’s or Safeway or whatever,” Black said.
That's what she wants people to think of when they think of Ukraine.
“I’m not saying that we have to all go and overthrow governments, but I’m just saying I think we have to do something," Black said. "They don’t deserve this.”
