North Texan From Ukraine Joined Ukrainian Army To 'Stay And Save His People'

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, a North Texas family is watching the developments closely.

Olena Kim lives in Fort Worth while her 23-year-old son Anthony, who joined the Ukrainian Army, is currently protecting the country.

CBS 11 News is not giving Anthony's last name for security reasons.

"He's choosing to stay and save his people," said Kim, "How worried, from 1-to-10? Probably a thousand. Of course, it's a war."

Kim said Anthony wanted to take a trip to visit his family in Ukraine about nine months ago and decided he wanted to stay a little while longer not knowing a war was imminent.

"He said, mom, I like this country can I stay here a few more months more, I said no problem you're an adult 23, no problem you can come back anytime," said Kim.

But once an invasion seemed like a possibly, Anthony joined the Ukrainian Army.

"It is a little bit scary of course it's nervous, I've never shot at a person or anything like that," said Anthony.

CBS 11 spoke with Anthony over the phone about what he's encountered so far.

"We were taking heavy fire from the Russian troops and the separatists that were coming from the Crimean region and they were shooting rockets and missiles like that and so we had go out into the field and dig up grounds and stuff like that to protect ourselves," said Anthony.

When asked why he felt compelled to fight for his home country, Anthony couldn't see his fellow Ukrainians suffer.

"Well because there's a lot of innocent people here that never wanted war in the first place," he said. Ukraine (and) Russia used to be getting along for decades and now it's all political stuff going on with Putin. We are outnumbered but we are very patriotic and we'll stand until our last until the last person."

While Anthony and his mom did connect on Monday, that's not always possible, so Kim checks her phone constantly to make sure he's safe.

"Mama, I'm stay alive, is what I want to hear every single second from him, mama I stayed alive, that's it," added Kim.

Anthony, along with his family, moved to North Texas when he was in the third grade and eventually went to Timber Creek High School and was involved in many sports, including football.

Kim hopes her prayers are answered and her son comes back to Fort Worth.

"Let him come back here and he will sit with me," she said.