MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - A Ukrainian woman looking to escape the war-torn country has arrived safely in South Florida, where she reunited with her daughter.
Tamara Dempsy said that reuniting with her mother at Miami International Airport on Wednesday is something that she wasn’t sure would come.
“I never believed that it could happen so bad,” she said.
The reunion was days in the making, but for this family, it felt like an eternity.
“She’s trying to hold strong, and she’s trying to be strong,” said Dempsy.
Like so many others, Dempsy’s mother, Vira, was forced to flee her home country.
A bus taking her from Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, most of the way to the Polish border.
The rest of the journey, more than 12 miles, had to be walked.
“Twenty kilometers they walked to the Poland border,” said Dempsy.
Once in Poland, Vira was able to catch a flight arriving at MIA Wednesday night, on her 77th birthday.
“I’m happy my mom is here,” said Dempsy.
Dempsy has lived in South Florida for 17 years, but despite being thousands of miles away, she said, when Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to invade her home country, her heart was right there with her people.
“It was a beautiful country, and now Putin. He’s a dictator, he’s destroying it, completely destroying the county and killing innocent people,” she said.
Dempsy said death and destruction at the hands of Putin’s troops dates back well before last week, which led to a tragic outcome.
“In 2014, Putin occupied Luhansk, and my sister was killed there, when Russians troops were bombing the city,” she said.
It’s a tragedy that shook her family to its core and prompted them to move to Kyiv, where they thought they would be safe.
“They are bombing schools, hospitals,” said Dempsy.
They never expected that less than a decade later, their new city would become a battleground.
Pictures sent by Dempsy’s brother and 23-year-old nephew convey the magnitude of the destruction.
“They are fighting for their lives, their country and freedom,” she said.
While she’s thankful her mother is safe, Dempsy said, she fears things overseas will only get worse if the U.S. and other countries don’t do more to help Ukraine stop Putin.
“Mom just said that if he is going to occupy Ukraine, he is not going to stop,” she said.
Dempsy and her mother said they’re praying for all the men and women who stayed back in Ukraine and continue to fight for freedom.
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