LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – It has now been three years since Russia invaded Ukraine. More than six million Ukrainians fled their homeland seeking refuge around the world. More than 270,000 have been granted temporary protected status in the US. Tuesday, FOX5 met with four families who came to Las Vegas to start a new life and have also found each other.
Amelia Filippova, 7, takes piano lessons here in Las Vegas but just three years ago, she was living in the basement of her home in Zaporizhzhia with her mother Mariia as the war began in Ukraine. Their region now 85 percent occupied by Russian forces.
“They start bombing almost every day and for my child it was really hard time because she wasn’t understanding why she needed to live in the basement…to not sleep in her own bed,” recounted Mariia Filippova.
As the fighting turned from day to weeks to months, the family knew they had to leave. A friend of a friend, someone they’d never met offered them a place to stay in Las Vegas.
“It’s really a big opportunity for our kids to be in here like in the normal life, you know to attend the school, to attend the gymnastic classes, piano classes,” Filippova explained.
“This is difficult because when we came here, we don’t know English,” shared Antonina Baula from Kiev.
“You didn’t know any English?,” FOX5’s Kim Passoth asked.
“No,” Baula replied. Baula and her 16-year-old son, who now attends Shadow Ridge High School, came to the US after a complete stranger saw one of her Facebook posts.
“If you don’t mind leaving Vegas, I can sponsor you and your son,” Baula recalled about the message she received and offer she accepted. Both moms say though the adjustment has been hard, people in Las Vegas have been nothing but welcoming and through English classes and other events for Ukrainians now living in Southern Nevada, they’ve also found each other, new friends and fellow refugees like Mariia Vasylenko.
“In Ukraine, I saw everything. It was really, really sad seeing all the houses destroyed….I’m really grateful for this and I’m grateful for everybody, whoever I met here,” Vasylenko stated.
“It’s completely different, but I feel here like home,” Baula revealed.
FOX5 connected with all of the families through another Ukrainian who fled the country just before the war began. Yulia Sobol is now working at UNLV as a researcher living here with her husband a twin 5-year-old boys. Sobol shared pictures taken in Odesa, Ukraine just 10 days before the war.
Everyone who spoke with FOX5 still has family and friends in Ukraine and continue to hope the war will come to an end soon. Everyone also expressed optimism they can one day safely return to their homeland.
Copyright 2025 KVVU. All rights reserved.
