While most county residents shake their heads at the news footage of the Russian invasion into Ukraine and President Joe Biden touts sanctions on the aggressor, local natives of Ukraine cry, lose sleep and clutch their phones in hopes of learning their relatives are safe.

“All my family is in danger now,” said a shaken Lyudmyla Martin of Butler. “I’m crying all day.”

Martin hails from Kharkov, Ukraine, which is about 31 miles from the Russian border.

After weeks of amassing troops and supplies at the border, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the order early Thursday for troops to push into Ukraine and launch a large-scale military attack.

Her brother and daughter-in-law remain in Kharkov, while her sister and two nieces are farther from the border in another town.

Martin’s daughter-in-law sent Martin a video from her apartment on the 12th floor Thursday morning that includes loud popping and explosions in the background as the young woman cries in terror. This video can be viewed on the Eagle’s Facebook page.

“She is saying, ‘Mom, I’m so scared. I’m so scared,’” Martin said through a new flood of tears. “Everyone is staying in the basement in this building.”

Another video shot by another young mother from her window shows a Russian military jet flying low over the apartment complex.

Suddenly, the plane either fires weapons or drops a bomb, which terrifies the woman taking the video.

A young child can be heard screaming in fear as the mother shouts frantically.

Martin translated her words as orders for the children to get their shoes and run to the basement of the building.

“Putin said he will not bomb civilians, he will only bomb military (installations),” Martin said. “Putin is a complete liar.”

Her brother, who is 77, grabbed water, medicine and important documents for himself and his wife before the pair left their home to join others in the subway.

Many residents in Ukrainian cities near the border fled to the comparative safety of the underground train system as airstrikes by the Russians rained down.

Because he is underground, Martin cannot contact her brother by phone.

Her sister and nieces are hunkering down in their home’s basement, which they refuse to leave.

“So, I watch and I wait,” Martin said as she checked her phone’s texts, Ukraine news and Kharkov apps with shaking hands.

Martin’s Ukrainian news app showed a reporter stating in her native tongue that many Ukrainians had already been killed and that Russian troops occupied a few Ukrainian cities as well.

Martin said Ukraine intelligence discovered Putin’s plan to capture Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

She said Zelenskyy was giving hourly news conferences in an attempt to calm and reassure his people, but since discovering Putin’s plot, he has been moving from place to place to avoid capture.

She worried that Russian troops will overwhelm her homeland in short order and at the peril of her beloved family and friends.

“Russia has so many rockets and bombs and missiles,” Martin said. “Ukraine does not have that.”

She is furious with Putin, who, she said, does not recognize Ukraine as a country, but as a Russian territory captured by Ukrainian nationalists.

“It is still my country forever and I worry about all people there,” Martin said. “They want to be part of NATO, and this (expletive) Putin, he says ‘no.’”

She said NATO and United States intelligence revealed Putin’s plan to attack weeks in advance, which allowed time for forces to be deployed to stop it.

“But they are interested in diplomacy,” Martin said.

She said everyone in Ukraine, regardless of their political stance, are united.

“All people support the president and the army,” Martin said. “Ukraine soldiers are very brave and will fight as hard as they can.”

In the meantime, she will stick close to her phone and hope the communication continues from her loved ones in Kharkov.

On top of her worries about the invasion, Martin lost her husband of 19 years, Bill, two weeks ago.

“I don’t know how I survive,” she said.

The leadership at St. Michael Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on Hansen Avenue in the Lyndora neighborhood of Butler also is incensed and heartbroken that Putin has invaded Ukraine.

“It’s a grave injustice,” said the Rev. Douglas Lorance, pastor of the 116-year-old church. “It’s evil. There’s no doubt about it. It can’t be justified.”

Lorance, who has served as pastor at the church for 25 years, said Putin claims ownership of all the sovereign countries bordering Russia that reclaimed their identities after the fall of communism.

He said half of his congregation are Ukrainian or of Ukrainian descent, and are aware of their ancestors’ persecution under Joseph Stalin before, during and after World War II.

Hermit David Rehm, director of the church’s Altar Society, said he and Lorance pray daily for the Ukrainian people.

“The prayers are our only comfort because God alone is the only one who is going to keep us safe,” Rehm said.

He said congregation members with relatives in Ukraine have shown he and Lorance videos of the brutality of Putin’s offensive.

“We have seen terrible, terrible devastation,” Rehm said.

Lorance said the church has 25 bishops in Ukraine, plus Cardinal Sviatoslav Shewchuck, the head of the worldwide Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Cardinal Shewchuck has a brother in the local diocese.

“You can imagine his worry,” Brehm said.

Lorance said he had received a few calls from worried parishioners as of Thursday afternoon who have relatives in Ukraine.

“They are very concerned,” Lorance said. “We pray together.”

Rehm said the congregation will continue its fervent prayers for Ukraine.

“The Blessed Mother said in the end her immaculate heart will triumph and good will be restored,” he said.