"We're all in hell, emotionally and physically,” said Manhattan resident Anna Arima, waiting to pick up her friend, a pregnant Ukrainian refugee, at JFK Airport.
"She just messaged me that she was in a cabin with a pilot. They were making sure that she was in a good condition, that she wouldn't deliver on the plane," she added.
Arima was born and raised in Ukraine, where she met her friend, Olesya Ostafieva, through work. Arima moved to New York seven years ago.
Tuesday night, Ostafieva arrived in New York on a plane from Poland, fleeing her home in Kyiv, Ukraine. Ostafieva is expected to give birth in two weeks.
"I don't remember what day of the week today is, but I know that today's the thirteenth day of war," said Ostafieva.
Ostafieva celebrated her daughter with a baby shower, the Wednesday before the war began. The next morning, she woke up at 5 A.M. to the sound of explosions.
"I didn't believe that Putin go so far and kill civilians so I decided to stay in Kyiv," Ostafieva explained.
She stayed in a bomb shelter under her home for four days, before deciding it was time to get out.
"I read news that my maternity hospital was bombed and I understand that I'm not safe in Kyiv and I need to leave," Ostafieva said.
So she got in her car with her dog and drove to Poland. What's usually a one day trip, took her four.
"We stay on border for 30 hours waiting," Ostafieva said. "It was hundreds and hundreds of women with child, with pets, with just one bag."
She spent three days in Poland, where she knew no one, when Arima called from New York offering her a way out, a life line.
"If you are just a human being, you are doing as much as possible," Arima said. "It's nothing special, I feel privileged that I can do something."
Arima said she's been living the horrors of the war, from thousands of miles away, through family still there. She spoke with her sister a few days ago.
"She was calling me, telling me, all of these people in the subway with their dogs and their kids and they don't know where to go, they're scared -- that was the moment," Arima said.
That was the moment she knew offering her apartment in the city was her way to help.
"Just imagine yourself, waking up, and someone came violently doing something to your relatives," Arima said. "What would be your reaction?"
As for what's next, the friends are taking it one day at a time.
"The plan yesterday was just to survive," Arima said, when we asked.
The plan now is for Ostafieva to deliver her baby here in New York, but she's already dreaming of when she can return home to her parents.
"I plan to buy a house near Kyiv, they want to be near their granddaughter," Ostafieva said fighting back tears.
She's hoping to spend Easter at home with her daughter, who she plans to name Kyra.