'Just hoping for the best': Members of Greater Houston's Ukrainian community help compatriots back home

Some members of Greater Houston’s Ukrainian community are turning their worry and despair for their homeland into something positive by lending helping hands.

Whether it's collecting supplies or spreading the word through social media, these residents want to make sure their compatriots are taken care of amid the horrific backdrop of war.

Viktoriia Sabinina came to Houston from Ukraine during her youth.

According to Houston CBS affiliate KHOU, Sabinina uses her Instagram account to share important news and links to resources for people to lend their support.

The 26-year-old told the station she still has many friends and relatives in Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia late last month.

"Just hoping for the best," she said. "Always trying to think we are strong and go through it like champions. Everything is going to be OK."

Houston NBC affiliate KPRC reported that Dmytro Ivanov and Grace’s Nutrition Market, his nutrition store in Spring, are collecting donations to send to his parents in Ukraine.

Ivanov said his mother and father live in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city after the capital city Kyiv that's currently under siege by Russian troops.

He said they've fled to the basement of his childhood home to protect themselves from the bombs, rockets and missiles strafing the city.

"The city has been bombed over and over, mostly during the night and they are firing missiles as well into the city and into the residential areas where people like my parents are living," Ivanov told KPRC.

Grace's Nutrition Market, located at at 1421 Spring Cypress Rd. in Spring, seeks donations of blankets, clothing, hygiene products and non-perishable food items.

The store is open between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Kateryna Gaido, the wife of Gaido's owner Nick Gaido, was born in Ukraine and also has family there. 

The famed Galveston seafood restaurant at 39th Street and Seawall Boulevard will donate a portion of its proceeds throughout the week to help her fellow Ukrainians on the other side of the ocean, Kateryna Gaido said.

"Anyone who comes to eat," Nick Gaido told the station. "That’s a direct way you can support."