'This Is A Nightmare': People Struggle To Get Money From California To Loved Ones During Ukraine Crisis

DAVIS (CBS13) -- Kaleb Kirton couldn't sit by and watch his friends slowly lose everything. He's looking for ways to send financial help to his friends in Russia who don't support the war but are still paying the consequences.

U.S. and European allies issued crippling sanctions, freezing the assets of multiple Russian banks.

"I'd like to figure out a way that they can receive some income because to my knowledge anyway that they could receive anything is closed off based on the sanctions," said Kirton.

"This is a nightmare. I was commenting earlier, this is like my own father murdering my Aunt's family," said Victoria Juharyan, a UC Davis visiting professor for the department of German and Russian.

Born in Armenia, she also grew up in Russia with friends and family in Ukraine.

"I've never been a Putin supporter, but I used to think that the US over-vilifies him. I thought he was smarter and now I'm realizing he's completely out of his mind. He's completely out of his mind," she said.

With friends and family now slowly cut off, how can you send money half a world away to help? We went with Victoria to Western Union and discovered you can still send money to both Russia and Ukraine.

Some of her friends have also been able to receive money through online international money transfer sites including Paysend and Wise.

"It's a huge, huge deal. Right? People are losing their money. Oligarchs are scared," Juharyan said.

"A lot of this is really unnecessary. And to see friends suffer for seemingly no reason, yeah, it breaks my heart," Kirton said.