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As the situation in Ukraine heats up and Russia's invading forces increasingly unleash violence around the country — especially in civilian areas — Yael Eckstein, founder and CEO of The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, shared detailed information and heartfelt concerns with Fox News Digital on Wednesday morning.
"The situation is catastrophic. The people are strong. They are brave," said Eckstein to Fox News Digital in an email about what is going on in Ukraine.
If "we are going to save lives, there's not a second to waste." — Yael Eckstein
"The women and children also are running out of time," she added urgently.
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"Imagine packing up your car to flee — with your children — and finding every road blocked as you hear air raid sirens in the background?" said Eckstein.
"How long can someone live in a bomb shelter or a subway?"
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She added that "the humanitarian situation is deteriorating rapidly. It's dire."
KYIV, UKRAINE- MARCH 2: People wait at a train station to board trains in an attempt to flee the fighting in Kyiv on March 2, 2022 in Kyiv. (Photo by Murat Saka/images via Getty Images)
Eckstein also reported on Wednesday, "Just this morning we were working on a sensitive operation to evacuate Jewish children who could have lost their lives. We managed to get them to a second country in order to evacuate them to the safety of Israel. This is getting harder to do."
She added, "Americans may not realize that Ukraine has one of the largest Jewish communities in the world. We've worked with the community for over 30 years. Many Ukrainian Jews are Holocaust survivors and virtually all of them are descendants of survivors."
Civilians walk by Ukraine residents who are using an underground metro station as a bomb shelter in Kyiv on March 2, 2022. On the seventh day of fighting in Ukraine, Russia claims control of the southern port city of Kherson, street battles rage in Ukraine's second-biggest city Kharkiv and Kyiv braces for a feared Russian assault. (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS/STF/AFP via Getty Images)
On this point, she also said, "How tragic would it be to survive the Holocaust but to die of starvation or to run out of gas on the way to the border?"
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is continuing to provide emergency assistance in Ukraine and is helping families seek shelter, the organization reports.
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The group said on Wednesday that the fellowship’s team is working "around the clock to ensure Jewish communities across Ukraine have the emergency essentials. They are also helping families evacuate their homes, providing them with shelter from missile attacks and getting them to safety across the border in neighboring countries."
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers his speech addressing the nation in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. Russian troops bore down on Ukraine's capital Friday, with explosions and gunfire sounding in the city as the invasion of a democratic country fueled fears of wider war in Europe and triggered new international efforts to make Moscow stop. ( Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
Valeria Kolchic, who works at the group's offices in Kharkiv — the second-largest city in Ukraine — shared an update via a statement from the group. "I do not have a shelter in the building," Kolchic said, referring to conditions as of several days ago.
"Every time I hear a siren, I run to hide at the nearest subway station," she said.
She also said that "air strike attacks and shooting [are taking place] in streets around us. [There is] no electricity, no internet. I am afraid of what’s going to happen next," she said, as the group reported.
A Polish soldier carries the baby of a Ukrainian refugee, left, upon their arrival at the border crossing in Medyka, southeastern Poland, on March 2, 2022. Seven days into the war, roughly 874,000 people have fled Ukraine; the U.N. refugee agency warned that number could exceed 1 million soon. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
At a Jewish shelter near Kyiv, the fellowship also shared, another team member joined a large room with families assembled there who are "waiting to be told what to do next."
Then — amazingly — "to lift their spirits, they began singing Psalm 133, ‘How good and pleasant it is when brethren dwell together,’ and a post-Shabbat prayer called the ‘Havdalah,'" the group reported.
Added Eckstein to Fox News Digital, "The good news is we know the needs [of the people] and there's still time to help them. We've already helped thousands — but the need is vast."
Yael Eckstein, founder of The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, shared the latest details about her group's humanitarian efforts for the people of Ukraine on March 2, 2022, with Fox News Digital.
She also said, "Thank God that generous friends, especially Christians, have already provided over $3 million to help Ukraine's Jews over the last week. We are so grateful they've helped us help them, but we're going to need more."
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She noted that Ukraine is "a huge country and there are as many as 200,000 Jews [there] alone."
If "we are going to save lives," Eckstein said, "there's not a second to waste."
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Eckstein founded the philanthropic organization in 1983. Anyone wanting to help with donations or to learn more information should check out its website at www.ifcj.org.
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