Former college basketball player Maurice "Mo" Creek and his mother, Pammy Morgan, detailed the emotions behind his escape from Ukraine following Russia's invasion of the country last month.
Creek, who played at the University of Indiana and George Washington University, stayed in a bomb shelter for two nights during his travels and equated it to the popular "Call of Duty" video game in an interview with ABC News.
"You start really feeling the actual effects of the war. Like, I was getting jets going across my building, then I have to go to the bomb shelter and I look on social media, you see one jet hit one lady's house like with a bomb like you know, with a missile," Creek said. "And it's like, dude, I'm not sleeping today. I'm not doing that. I'm paranoid, terrified."
Creek left the U.S. in December to compete for MBC Mykolaiv in the Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague. The clubs downplayed the likelihood of a Russian invasion and would not allow players to break their contracts. When Russia invaded, the league paused its season and American players began scrambling to leave.
Creek escapes Ukraine
He told CNN last week his group had four options and then a fifth when his assistant coach and family were leaving the country. They had one more spot available in their travels with a personal driver and Creek said he took it. They traveled 130 miles through checkpoints and waited nine hours out in the freezing cold at the Moldovan border to get through immigration.
TOOK ME 12 HOURS BUT FINALLY OUT OF UKRAINE… NEXT STOP BACK TO ROMANIA
— Mo Creek (@Mo_Creek) February 28, 2022
He was able to catch a flight to the U.S. early last week from eastern Romania and reunited with his family on Thursday.
"I still sit here and I cry every day," Morgan told ABC News. "Maurice was over there and it was not looking good. It was sickening. I mean, I've lost like 10 pounds. We couldn't sleep. We couldn't eat — phone's ringing off the hook."
Creek said the scariest part of being in Ukraine amid the bombings was at night during martial law when it was pitch black. Via ABC News:
"I'm talking about it looked like if you had a plug, and you could plug every light to the city like somebody just took the plug out and the whole city was black."
"So now you can't feel nothing and you can't see nothing. I'm like, 'Yo, I can't even see if a Russian is coming up in my building trying to shoot,'" he said
"Because they have night vision," his mom said.
Millions leave Ukraine, but many others stuck
He spent a lot of time communicating with people, which he said got him through the hard time, and appreciated prayers. He had the same advice for those still stuck in Ukraine, such as friends and teammates in a country at war.
"I just pray for them every day and their families," Creek told ABC News. "Because when I saw them for the last time, I shedded some tears because it's like not only will I maybe not ever see you again on the basketball level. I may not never see you on the livelihood level because of what's going on right now."
In the 12 days since the Russian invasion, more than 2 million Ukrainians have fled their country, according to a tracker by the U.N. refugee agency. It is approximately 4% of the Ukrainian population, per NPR, and UNICEF reports that at least half are children.
Family members outside of Ukraine are working to help their relatives leave, including Cincinnati Bengals tight end Drew Sample. Ang, his wife, was born in Ukraine and still has a lot of family there, including grandparents and cousins. They told Fox News on Monday it's been tough to formulate a plan for making sure they are out safely.
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