CARTERVILLE, Ill. (WSIL) -- Everyday for the past month, Zlatoslava Suprunyuk checks for news and updates on Ukraine.
It's where she and her husband, Maks, and 7-year old son lived prior to the Russian invasion. Suprunyuk, a fitness and fight instructor who managed gyms in Kiev, is now managing survival.
"We are actually a normal Ukrainian family with a normal level of life," Suprunyuk said. "Everyday it starts like that. Telephone, searching messaging... Not good."
Suprunyuk was in her apartment on February 25 when an airstrike targeted Kiev. The sunset colors in the night sky meant the sun was setting on their stay in Kiev.
"We were so afraid that after that we get up, get our baggage and drove my car and go [sic] away from our house," Suprunyuk said.
Suprunyuk's first task was to get her son out and to reunite with her husband.聽Maks, an engineer, was on assignment in Poland when Russia invaded.
After spending two days on the road, Supruyuk was still in Ukraine and was forced to abandon her vehicle. She relied on her legs and trains to keep them safe. One train became their home.
"We were living and sleeping on the train on the floor," Suprunyuk said. "It was cold. It was difficult. There was a lot of people. A lot of people. A lot of [children]."
After four grueling days, the family reunited in Poland. In the past month, the family stayed with friends in Germany before arriving in Belgium last Wednesday.
Maks called his great aunt, who was hosting two family members visiting from Carterville, Illinois, to stay at her home. The great aunt, who just turned 100, was a Ukrainian refugee from World War II.
Her granddaughter, Jana Cantrell, was visiting when the family of three called for help.
"We took them to a friend's house and they just got in the backseat with two suitcases," Cantrell recalled. "Their littel boy... was so tired he was sleeping on mom's lap."
Humbled but heartbroken, Cantrell promised to share the family's story when she returned home to the U.S.
"I can't complain about my fries being cold at McDonald's when you have a nation of people that are going through this right now," Cantrell said.
Suprunyuk says Maks is waiting to go back to Ukraine to help fight Russian troops, just like some of their friends back in Kiev. They have hope Ukraine will win the war but they'll lose any sympathy that's left for Russia.
"It's a very difficult situation because they killed our children, women, our people," Suprunyuk said. "Ukraine will be very strong and everything for Ukraine... will be good."
Suprunyuk and her son traveled from Kiev, Ukraine to Lasne, Belgium in the month since the invasion began. That distance, just over 1,300 miles, is roughly the same distance between Carbondale, Illinois and El Paso, Texas.