(KGTV) - Ukraine's energy infrastructure was attacked by Russia Friday morning, prompting emergency power outages.
The extent of the damage isn't clear, but Ukraine's Energy-Minister urged people to remain in shelters.
Russia has launched 12 attacks on Ukraine’s power system so far this year, according to Ukraine's energy operator, and Friday's was intended to make Ukrainians suffer through the winter season.
One San Diego woman was in Ukraine Friday, delivering humanitarian aid to Ukrainians to help them survive the winter season.
Winnie Huong was in Lviv at a post office at the time the sirens started to sound.
"I was packaging and sending, and then a second intense siren took place," Huong said.
Huong is the treasurer for the non-profit Shield of Freedom, and she was at the post office trying to send out supplies when the sirens went off.
Huong said the post office told her to quickly take shelter in a hotel parking garage nearby, and she waited there for an hour until it was safe again to come out.
"We didn't know with so many missiles where it's gonna hit, where it's gonna land, and whether life is gonna change from that moment on," Huong said.
ABC 10News' Zoom conversation with Huong froze twice because of the rolling blackouts that Ukraine was experiencing following Russia's attack on the country's energy sector.
"It was snowing yesterday and today," Huong said. "So it's very cold all over Ukraine, and to deliberately target this infrastructure is really inhumane."
As Huong dealt with the immediate impacts Friday, Ukrainian families back in San Diego frantically checked on loved ones back home.
Krystina Shchelkunova, the executive director for the Slavic Refugee and Immigrant Service organization, helps around 10-thousand Ukrainian refugees in San Diego and said her mother-in-law called her right after the attack.
"My mother-in-law and father-in-law are still in Ukraine, and they live close by where the attack was," Shchelkunova said.
Shchelkunova said she wishes she could bring her in-laws to the States but said her mother-in-law chooses not to leave.
"I say you are a woman; you're not fighting," Shchelkunova said. "She said I can do something, I can feed soldiers, I can provide some help to the soldiers."
Shchelkunova said she continues to focus on Ukrainians eager to leave their war-torn country, like her good friend Ella Popeneko, who came to San Diego with her family two years ago.
Popeneko said at one point, she and her husband and two kids had to live out of their car in an underground parking lot for a week. That's when they decided to leave Ukraine.
"In Kharkiv, they can't go to school, they cannot go for a walk, they cannot go to the playground because all the time sirens in my city so often," Popeneko said.
Popeneko said she doesn't regret leaving Ukraine because it was the right thing to do for her children, and six months ago, she helped Shchelkunova bring one more of their closest friends from Ukraine to San Diego to escape the conflict with Russia.
The House of Ukraine will be hosting a 'Stand For Ukraine' event on Sunday, December 15th, at 2 p.m. at Balboa Park.
For more information, click here.
