NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Ukrainian woman who is due to give birth in just two weeks landed in New York City on Tuesday night, escaping her home in Kyiv amid a conflict she did not believe would turn to war.
"The last two weeks [were] very terrible and without any [understanding] what would be my next day," Olesya Ostafieva said.
Ostafieva told 1010 WINS' Brigitte Quinn that the invasion started a day after her baby shower.
"One day before the war, [it] was my baby shower, and I [went] to bed with a lot of presents, a lot of [balloons] in my apartment. And It was a wonderful day. And the next day. I woke up at 5 a.m. with bombs," she said.
The mom-to-be then spent four nights in a bomb shelter, though her friend Anna in New York City offered her to come stay with her.
Without flights in Kyiv and throughout Ukraine, she decided to stay in the shelter under her home because she thought "Putin would not go so far [to] kill civilians."
Then she read that Russian forces bombed her maternity hospital in Kyiv and she decided she needed to flee.
However, Ostafieva said she faced many challenges in making her harrowing escape.
"I understand that I'm not safe and I don't know where I can [give birth]. So I decided to go to West Ukraine with my sister and [my] dog by car ... So we spent four days in the car. We spent 30 hours on the border near Poland," she added.
Ostafieva acknowledged how fortunate she was to have a car to accompany them on their journey, as she saw "hundreds of women" walking across the border with young children, many of whom were waiting on the streets in the cold and without hot food.
She eventually made it onto a flight from Poland and landed in New York City, where she is currently staying at Anna's apartment.
"We are safe now," she said, referring to a Russian airstrike in Mariupol on Wednesday that destroyed another maternity hospital and killed three people, including a child.
Ostafieva said she now plans to deliver her baby girl at Mount Sinai West and praised the "support and humanitarian" relief she has received from hospital personnel.
"I was very surprised and it was wonderful," she said.
Eventually, the soon-to-be mother said she dreams of returning to Ukraine to have Easter with her family.
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