Bay Area Navy SEAL helps evacuate Ukrainians as others prepare to fight
TAMPA, Fla. - As Russian troops close in on Kyiv, Tampa Bay residents with family in Ukraine's capital are holding out hope that their loved ones will survive.
"[There] were three very loud explosions," recalled Yuliya Bryant of Brandon, who FaceTimed with her brother on Friday.
He is riding out the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a Kyiv apartment with his family.
"My little child is not even three years old," he said. "I am very worried about her safety," said her brother, Oleksander.
She added, "I don't want [them] to live under [Putin's] regime. I want my people, my family to live free."
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Bryan Stern is a former Navy SEAL working right now in Ukraine to evacuate several dozen Americans through the Romanian border.
"We are getting them out, and they are leaving pretty much everything they have behind," said Stern.
He said Russian troops have infiltrated Kyiv and most residents will not have the option to escape, but those left behind have armed themselves and promise to fight.
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"What is happening here is like a natural disaster, like a terrible hurricane, except it is man-made. It is catastrophic everywhere," said Stern.
The question, he says, is not necessarily if Kyiv falls, but when, and what will life be like for those who would thus become subjects of Vladimir Putin.
"I don't wish anybody to go through what I, my brother, what my family is going through, what his kids have to go through, I don't wish it on anybody," said Bryant.