Largo nurse readies to help home country of Ukraine

Bay Area nurse going back to Ukraine to help

Jordan Bowen reports

TAMPA, Fla. - A Pinellas County nurse is preparing to head back to her home country of Ukraine to lend her skills to people suffering. Right now, Oksana Shavaryn-Sharkey is working on figuring out where they need is and how to best meet it.

"Russia has been trying to take over for so long. Even since Soviet times. It's always been Ukraine, always been a target for them. I don't know why," Shavaryn-Sharkey said.

Shavaryn-Sharkey gets emotional as she talks about her home country of Ukraine. It's now been four days since Russia invaded and many Ukrainians are in desperate for aid.

"The food and medical supplies that's the greatest need because the medical supplies for people who is wounded for military, that's what they need. You know, the east of Ukraine, especially Kyiv and Kharkiv like those big cities that's been bombed," Shavaryn-Sharkey said.

Tampa man stuck in Moscow amid invasion

Johnathan Bush spoke to FOX 13 from Moscow, after the plane he was on had to do a U-turn. He had been spending the last several weeks visiting his wife’s family.

MORE: 'Everyone is panicking': Tampa man stuck in Russia due to restrictions on air travel, finances

As Shavaryn-Sharkey explains she feels compelled to help. She originally came to the U.S. from Ukraine 10 years ago after being selected in a visa lottery. Now, she works as a nurse at Largo Medical Center.

"I do have a job and everything here, but so far America is safe and my country need help," Shavaryn-Sharkey said.

It's why Oksana and her husband Jonathon, a U.S. Army veteran, are preparing to pack up and leave for the city of Ternopil, Ukraine which is about 300 miles west of Kyiv. They've been in close contact with the U.S. State Department as well as the Ternopil Mayor Serhiy Nadal.

George Baranowskyj remembers parents fleeing Ukraine in 1944

In 1944, George Baranowskyj, who now lives in Osprey, Florida, was 6 years old. His family was fleeing his home country of Ukraine. "I remember seeing a plane diving down and shooting up some cars," he recalled.

WATCH: Sarasota family 'living it all over again' after fleeing Ukraine as children

They're currently working with him to figure the current needs and how to meet them.

Right now, they're not sure when they'll be leaving, but say they're standing by ready to go when the times right.

"If they want me to join a hospital job I will do it. Wherever they need me I will go," Shavaryn-Sharkey said.