Residents offer safety and support for Ukraine

AMONG the four million refugees fleeing war torn Ukraine during Russia’s invasion are Ray Slywka’s great niece and nephew.

Mr Slywka has organised for the safe return of the husband and wife from Yaseniv-Pil’nyi, a small village in country’s south-west, about 500 kilometres from the capital Kyiv.

“I’ve already purchased the tickets, they’ll be here next Saturday night at midnight, I’ll be picking them up at the [Melbourne] airport,” he said.

“I said to them ‘look, you’ve got a sponsor in me, I’ve got accommodation for you in Kangaroo Flat.

“Get away from that environment because there’s two million refugees in Poland, so where do you go? You’re going to be sleeping in tents’.

“Whereas I don’t mind paying for their flights and looking after them here.”

His hopes for an end to the warfare plaguing his home country are shared by a group of local residents who are uniting in a show of solidarity for in the besieged eastern European nation.

A peace rally organised by couple Maree Stanley and Neil Dyson was held last Saturday morning in Rosalind Park, where attendees tearfully heard media reports on the war and its Ukrainian victims.

The United Nations last week recorded civilian deaths, including children, at 1189 but noted that number was likely much higher.

“We’ve become acutely aware of what’s happening to the Ukrainian people who are innocent victims of an illegal invasion,” Mr Dyson said.

“Even though we can’t change the course of the war, we wanted to do something locally to show that we care.

“The people of Ukraine won’t know that, but at least we feel better doing something rather than sitting, doing nothing.”

The couple have made donations to children’s humanitarian organisation UNICEF and animal protection charity IFAW, and even booked an Airbnb in the country to get money directly into the bank account of a Ukrainian host.

“It breaks your heart, so you have to do something,” Ms Stanley said.

“We’ll do the rallies until the invasion is stopped because you can’t give up. Hopefully little messages will get through, especially to the people in our community that have connections with Ukraine and Russia.”