'What am I going to do?' A Chicago-area woman traveled near the Ukraine border to help her parents escape

CHICAGO — As Russian troops and bombs descended on Ukraine, the daughter frantically booked a flight from Chicago to Warsaw, Poland, to help her parents fleeing their home in Kyiv.

Her 78-year-old mother and father earlier this month escaped the war-torn capital with the clothing on their backs and few other possessions.

Explosions rocked Kyiv overnight. A convoy of Russian military vehicles said to be 40 miles long was headed into the city. Security checkpoints dotted the route west, further slowing the traffic already congested with thousands of cars.

Brutal media images of Russian shelling and civilian casualties terrified their daughter, 47-year-old Yaroslava Dunn of west suburban St. Charles, as she headed to Poland.

"It was a helpless feeling," Dunn said. "What am I going to do? Who am I going to contact to get them out? It was a feeling of desperation."

But her parents safely reached the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on March 7, with the aid of a Christian volunteer group. About a week later, the couple crossed into Poland and reunited with Dunn, the parents and daughter gratefully hugging one another at the train station.

"It broke my heart, made me sad to tears, to see their exhausted smile-less faces," Dunn recalled in a Facebook post that day. "Elderly people in their late 70s, who had to leave everything, their entire life, behind."

The family was safe and out of harm's way. But their bureaucratic nightmare had just begun: Dunn planned to bring her parents to the United States, to stay in her home until the war is over and they can return to Ukraine.

Yet she's tackling a complicated and often confusing process to get them travel visas. And she's doing so from a hotel in Warsaw, a city already overwhelmed with war refugees.

'We are in limbo'

After about two weeks of phone calls and filing paperwork with the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Poland, Dunn was still not sure both parents will be able to come with her to the United States.

"We are in limbo," she said. "Even in Warsaw, while in safety, we cannot exhale because we do not know what to do."

As the war continued into a fourth week, Dunn was among a growing number of individuals and organizations urging the United States to resettle more Ukrainian war refugees and asylum-seekers — as well as expedite the process, which can typically take years.

So far, more than 3 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the Feb. 24 full-scale Russian invasion, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Nearly 2 million have gone to Poland, while hundreds of thousands of others have traveled to Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia, respectively.

While the Biden administration has reportedly considered expediting the resettlement of Ukrainian refugees, the United States at this point has mainly offered humanitarian aid, giving nearly $300 million in funds to support Ukraine's displaced population, both in Ukraine and the surrounding region.

But the White House faces mounting pressure from various groups and lawmakers, who in recent days have called on the U.S. to take in more refugees from Ukraine and quicken the process.

U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz of California traveled to the Poland-Ukraine border earlier this month, witnessing the calamity firsthand. In a March 11 letter to Biden, he implored the United States to raise the global refugee cap, as well as hasten the reunification of Ukrainians with family in the United States.

"Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine has created an escalating humanitarian crisis," Ruiz said in the letter. "The United States must respond by opening its arms to those seeking safety and security."

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in a letter last week asked the Biden administration to expedite the admission of refugees from Ukraine.

Canadian officials on Thursday launched a new policy allowing Ukrainians fleeing the war and their immediate family members to stay in Canada for up to three years.

Dunn said she believes the U.S. government "can do much more than it is doing now" for those evacuating Ukraine.

Her family's situation, though scary and frustrating, is one of the better scenarios among those fleeing, she said.

Her parents are not in immediate danger. She and her sister are citizens of the United States, fluent in English and multiple other languages, with the resources to spend time in Poland and navigate complex and confounding government processes.

Her mother, Nataliia Sukhodulska, has a multiple-entry visa that permits her to travel to the United States temporarily, so she was able to fly to the U.S. on Friday with Dunn's sister, who lives in Wisconsin.

But Dunn is remaining in Poland with her father, Iurii Siedov.

He had a single-entry visa to travel to the United States about two years ago but it expired and there had been no way to renew it. The government had suspended routine visa services amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dunn said she hopes to stay in Warsaw with her dad until she can get him a temporary visitor visa. But even these are short-term solutions for her family.

She can't stay in Poland indefinitely. But she doesn't want to leave her father behind in a foreign country where he knows no one and doesn't speak Polish.

Dunn also worries about other Ukrainians who want to seek refuge in the United States but lack a clear path for doing so. She recently sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and more than a dozen lawmakers, chronicling the plight of her parents and others evacuating Ukraine.

"I can only imagine what kind of unbearable burden it is to deal with all of this for an ordinary Ukrainian family with young kids, elderly parents, pets, etc., … who have nothing, who do not speak English and who have no immediate emotional and financial support system from their relatives and friends," she said in the letter. "My heart breaks for them."

Journey to Warsaw

The sisters had tried to convince their parents to evacuate Kyiv in the tumultuous days leading up to the Russian invasion.

Their mom and dad, a retired biologist and nuclear physicist, didn't want to leave.

"They didn't believe that war would actually break out," said Dunn, who immigrated to the United States at 24 and became a naturalized citizen in 2005.

But in early March — as bombs rained down on Kyiv — the parents said they were ready to go.

At first, they tried to head west by train, but the stations were swarmed with other evacuees and they couldn't board.

"At that point it was super scary because there was no way to get them out," Dunn said. "We knew from the reports that the train stations were absolutely overwhelmed. People who didn't have tickets were rushing into the trains. They were standing room only."

On March 6, Dunn and her sister flew to Warsaw, the closest city to Kyiv they could buy a plane ticket to because Ukraine had closed its airspace to civilian flights.

The same day, her parents were able to get help from a Christian volunteer group and boarded a minibus with several others fleeing Kyiv, including a family friend, as well as their two pet dogs. They were instructed to wear warm clothing and pack very little, mainly phones, chargers, government documents, a few photographs, and no additional clothing or personal items.

The roughly 350-mile trip to Lviv was congested with thousands of cars fleeing the capital, but minibuses were given priority to pass, making the long journey a little quicker, Dunn said.

Once in Lviv, her mother realized she'd made a critical error: In her haste to leave, she had grabbed expired passports.

"I had a panic attack when I heard that," Dunn said. "I didn't know what to think."

The couple contacted one of Dunn's cousins who remained in Kyiv due to his age: Ukraine has barred men aged 18 to 60, who could be conscripted, from leaving the country. The cousin was able to retrieve the correct passports and courier them to Dunn's parents several days later.

The sisters and parents finally reunited in Warsaw on Monday.

"That was a big relief; it was a great feeling," she said. "But they were very worn out. It was sad to see them like that."

They bought their mom and dad new clothing, because the parents had been wearing the same outfits they had put on when they fled their apartment more than a week before.

"They were so stressed out," she said. "They were crying. They didn't sleep the first night."

Volunteers did offer food and clothing, but Dunn wanted to reserve those donations for refugees who needed them more.

The family was stunned by the generosity of Poland, which recently approved legislation permitting Ukrainian refugees the right to stay legally for 18 months, with the option to extend up to three years. She described the people of Warsaw as "extremely supportive," but added that the city is "flooded with refugees."

"They are absolutely overwhelmed," she said. "My sister and I were amazed. There are more Russian and Ukrainian speaking people on the streets of Warsaw than Polish people."

But she doesn't have a permanent residence in Warsaw. Her parents don't speak the language. They don't have friends or family there.

"I want them in safety and in the comfort of my own place," Dunn said. "I want to provide for them as much as I can."

Return to Ukraine

The Biden administration has indicated it's considering fast-tracked options to admit more Ukrainian evacuees, particularly those hoping to join family in the United States.

"We're looking at things that we can do ourselves and do directly," Blinken said Thursday, according to CNN. "For example, looking at steps we may be able to take on family reunification and other things that we can do to be supportive and to really take part of this effort."

In Illinois, there are roughly 200,000 residents of Ukrainian decent, according to estimates by Chicago Sister Cities International. The Chicago area has expressed an outpouring of support for Ukraine since the invasion, through fundraisers, protests and donations of supplies.

As for Dunn, she spends her days trying to file government documents online and calling the U.S. Embassy, attempting to get her father a visa.

At first, she wasn't able to get an appointment with the U.S. Embassy until May 17. She tried to explain over the phone how she couldn't stay in Warsaw for that long and she didn't want to leave her father alone in a foreign country.

A few days later, she was able to get an expedited interview date for March 25.

"I pray to God that he will be granted a visa," she said. "That's the plan. There's no guarantee right now, but I hope that this is winding down."

Dunn added that her parents long to eventually return to Kyiv.

They had opportunities to immigrate to the United States over the years, she recalled, but they love their country and the life they left back home.

"When we win the war — and I know Ukrainians will win this war — and we rebuild their country, I can guarantee you they will go back," she said.

While she's concerned for her mother and father, Dunn said she's also advocating for other Ukrainians who fled the fighting.

"I will navigate the system," she said. "I will do everything to make it work. My case is the best-case scenario. And this best-case scenario is all this expense and work and frustration. I can only imagine for those who do not have all these resources."

She listed some of the numerous challenges faced by evacuees: Many lack relatives who speak English and can come to their aid. Others can't afford a long hotel stay. Some might not have internet access or be able to easily navigate government websites online.

"There is not even a glimpse of hope for those people," she said.