A gay man from Ukraine who lives in D.C. with his husband says his mother-in-law remains hunkered down in her apartment in the country’s capital.

“She tells herself that everything’s fine,” Serge Duka told the Washington Blade on March 1 during a telephone interview. “That’s her way of coping with the whole situation.”

Duka, who lives in Chevy Chase, first spoke with the Blade a week after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

He said he and his husband wanted his mother-in-law to leave Kyiv before the war, but “a friend of a friend” convinced her to stay. Duka repeatedly stressed he didn’t think Russian President Vladimir Putin would follow through with his threat to invade Ukraine.

“She is not in particularly good health,” said Duka on March 1, again referring to his mother-in-law. “She’s almost 70 years old and we don’t want her out there. We don’t want her to leave her apartment.”

Duka on Wednesday told the Blade in a second telephone interview that his mother-in-law with whom he and his husband speak every day remains in her Kyiv apartment.

Duka said there are “buildings that are destroyed” in the area of Kyiv where his mother-in-law lives, but her building “still stands.” Duka also told the Blade that it would prove difficult for his mother-in-law to evacuate Kyiv because the situation at the city’s train station is chaotic.

“She won’t be able to wrestle her way in,” said Duka.

Duka lived in Kyiv for seven years before he and his husband moved to the U.S. at the end of 2013 and asked for asylum because of the anti-gay persecution they suffered in Ukraine. Duka is from Rivne, a city in western Ukraine that is near the country’s borders with Belarus and Poland.

Duka on March 1 said his parents go to a makeshift bomb shelter that “they basically created less than a week ago in the basement of their apartment building” several times a day.

“No one expected that,” he said. “The expectation was the war would be in the entire east side (of Ukraine) and not the west side. They go there at least three to four times a day on a daily basis because of the air raids from Belarus.”

Duka on Wednesday told the Blade his parents’ situation has not changed.

“My parents are relatively safe,” he said.

“They run to the shelter down the street four times a day,” added Duka. “It’s not getting any worse. It’s not getting any better. They’re tired, angry.”

The invasion continues to spark worldwide condemnation and sweeping sanctions against Russia, Putin and members of his inner circle.

Magomed Tushayev, a Chechen warlord who played a role in the anti-LGBTQ crackdown in his homeland, died during a skirmish with the Ukrainian military’s elite Alpha Group outside of Kyiv.

Media reports indicate Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill on Sunday categorized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a struggle to protect two separatist regions in the eastern part of the country from “gay parades.” Russian authorities on March 5 announced they had detained Brittney Griner, a member of the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after she allegedly had hashish oil in her luggage.

A White House official previously told the Blade the Biden administration has “engaged directly” with LGBTQ Ukrainians and other groups that Russia may target if it gains control of their country. Insight and other organizations inside Ukraine continue to raise money to support LGBTQ Ukrainians in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities under Russian attack. LGBTQ advocacy groups in neighboring countries and around the world have also backed these efforts.

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision in 2013 to reject an agreement that would have brought his country closer to the European Union sparked a protest movement that culminated with violent clashes in Kyiv’s Maidan square. Yanukovych, who was allied with Putin, resigned and fled to Russia.

“Back then Russia created a huge campaign against the European Union and one of the main talking points was the point that they called Europe Sodom,” Duka told the Blade on March 1. “The Ukrainian people were targeted with all these stories about how there was 58 genders in Europe and children will be forced to change genders … they will give your children to gay people and all sorts of crap.”

Duka also said he thinks Russia funded neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine that targeted gay people. He noted to the Blade that his now husband was an LGBTQ activist and “was targeted heavily on the internet.”

“That’s one of the reasons why we left,” said Duka.

Duka said he and his husband continue to watch the news for updates on the war.

“When I sleep, he watches the news,” he said. “When he sleeps I watch the news and we are talking to our parents and relatives.”

Duka said he and his husband also feel helpless.

“There’s basically nothing much I can do,” he said.

Duka said the U.S. government has done “everything” it can do outside of sending troops to Ukraine, which he does not support.

“If they actually start the Third World War, it will be in Ukraine,” he said.

“If Russia started to fire nuclear weapons, they’ll be dead,” added Duka, referring to his family.

This week, President Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and natural gas as part of a crippling sanctions regime now joined by many businesses, including Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. A Polish plan to deploy jet fighters to Ukraine via an air base in Germany was rejected by the United States as too risky. Amid the intense bombing of Kyiv, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has appeared defiant and even broadcast a live message from his presidential offices this week. A 40-mile Russian convoy outside the capital remains stalled amid reports of problems with fuel and mechanical breakdowns. For the latest news on the Russian invasion, please visit our website.