Kyiv Couple Spend Three Weeks In Laundry Room, Refusing To Leave Ukraine

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Cute cats, Orisia and Simba, are about the only thing giving a young Kyiv couple, Oksana and Boris Sabada comfort these days.

“This is just the floor with some pillows,” Oksana told CBS4’s Joel Waldman pointing out her tiny laundry room in Kyiv via Zoom interview.

The fear of incoming missiles forced Oksana and Boris and, of course, their adorable cats, into the close confines of their laundry room. They tell us they’re only able to leave for moments at a time.

“It’s really tough, a person cannot live like that, I can tell you for sure. We’ve been sleeping here for three weeks now. In this tiny room. We’re just too scared to sleep in our regular bed,” explained Boris.

“We cannot lead our normal life, we cannot sleep in our bed, we have to sleep right here (points to blankets on the floor). Like, this is our bed,” Oksana laughed.

WATCH: Joel Waldman’s Interview With Oksana And Boris Sabada

cbsoptanon.onScriptsReady(function(cmp){cmp.ot.targetingAllowed(function(a){if(a) AnvatoPlayer(“p0”).init({“mcp”:”cbs”,”width”:”100%”,”height”:”100%”,”video”:”6212960″,”autoplay”:false,”titleVisible”:false,”accessKey”:”5VD6Eyd6djewbCmNwBFnsJj17YAvGRwl”,”accessControl”:{“preview”:false},”pInstance”:”p0″,”plugins”:{“heartbeat”:{“account”:”cbslocal-global-unified”,”publisherId”:”cbslocal”,”jobId”:”sc_va”,”marketingCloudId”:”823BA0335567497F7F000101@AdobeOrg”,”trackingServer”:”cbsdigitalmedia.hb.omtrdc.net”,”customTrackingServer”:”cbsdigitalmedia.d1.sc.omtrdc.net”,”chapterTracking”:false,”version”:”1.5″,”customMetadata”:{“video”:{“cbs_market”:”miami.cbslocal.com”,”cbs_platform”:”desktop”}}},”comscore”:{“clientId”:”3000023″,”c3″:”miami.cbslocal.com”},”dfp”:{“clientSide”:{“adTagUrl”:”http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=2×2&iu=/4128/cbs.mia&ciu_szs&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=xml_vast2&unviewed_position_start=1&url=[referrer_url]&description_url=[description_url]&correlator=[timestamp]”,”keyValues”:{“categories”:”[[CATEGORIES]]”,”program”:”[[PROGRAM_NAME]]”,”siteSection”:”video-default”}}},”moat”:{“clientSide”:{“partnerCode”:”cbslocalanvatovideo181732609431″}}},”token”:”default”,”expectPreroll”:true,”expectPrerollTimeout”:5});});});
 

Choosing to laugh when there’s so much to cry about, the couple recently just had to deal with COVID. The interview, like life in Kyiv, was abruptly interrupted.

“There are some crazy people who act as terrorists come to your home (interrupted by cell phone warning). Sorry, excuse me,” said Oksana.

She apologized for a problem no one in her country asked for and for an alarm no one wanted to hear, warning of possible danger.

“It’s like at night, for example, at 3 a.m., it can sound like an alarm (makes dazed look) and you wake up and you’re like, okay. Okay,” she said.

Boris added, “It’s frightening actually. You wake up and you don’t know what’s happening and you need some time to realize what’s happening to find your phone and turn it off and go to the shelter or stay here (in Kyiv).

Usually in control as captain of a 737 commercial jet, 32-year old Boris and his 31-year-old bride are now flying blind thru the fog of war, confused about so much, like the 36-hour curfew just implemented in Kyiv.

“I don’t know what the reason is behind this is for this 36-hour curfew but maybe it’s connected with some counter attacks from our side.”

Oksana and Boris remain unflappable  in the face of so much force and fury and a formidable enemy,

“People must know we’re not faceless,” said Oksana.

“Ukraine will stand until the end. No Russians will be here. Ever,” said Boris.

“We are the border, the borderline between like two worlds, autocratic and democratic and unfortunately we are on the border, so we are like the border guards,” concluded Oksana.