Marrero resident fears for her family's safety in Ukraine: ‘It’s more dangerous than Hitler. It’s Satan.’

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - “Mama I’ve found some driver, if someone can pick up you, please can you drive?” said Lana Martin.

These are the most recent texts Lana Martin’s mother sent her from Ukraine.

“She said daughter, no, I’m in such bad condition. I cannot drive. I’m in such bad condition.”

Martin shakes with emotion reading them. She only has a few hours a day to communicate with her family as they try to conserve resources.

She carries a photo of her mother, Galina with her everywhere she goes. It’s now been more than a week since Russian forces invaded her native country of Ukraine, not knowing from day to day if she’ll ever speak with her mother again.

“I want very much to help. I want to fly to Poland, and I want to enter Ukraine to find my mom, and to take her and to move… a train, I don’t know train, bus, whatever, taxi driver, but Michael told me you cannot. They closed all the country, you cannot drive, so only thing is to pray,” said Martin.

Her brother Michael now serves in the Ukrainian army, while she says her blind mother escaped to a surrounding village and hides in a stranger’s home.

“She hears bombs, she hears bombs again, bombs, explosion, oh wait I’ll call you back later, and you don’t know exactly when that village would be bombed,” said Martin.

She says she’s disgusted by what Russian president Vladimir Putin is doing to her country, and her family, wishing to turn her feeling of helplessness into action.

“If I would be now in Ukraine I would take a gun and stand with my brother for fighting. I would be fighting with him, I’m ready to die. I want to stand up on a tank and hold those tanks to not go. I would take other women, to hold with women and say come on, come on do it, women will stand up and women will stop those tanks. This is who it is. It’s more dangerous than Hitler. It’s Satan,” said Martin.

Martin with support from her husband, Kerry still holds onto her faith, thankful for American assistance.

“Thank you, thank you, very much from Ukrainians. From all Ukrainians, thank you, you’re our brothers, you’re our sisters,” said Martin.

She ultimately hopes Russians gain the courage to revolt against a dictator.

“Don’t be foolish, stand up, stand up, All the planet now depends on you, Russian people,” said Martin.

There is a rally scheduled to support Ukraine for March 8 at noon at Lafayette Square Park.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.

Copyright 2022 WVUE. All rights reserved.