BY DAKOTA TAIT
The Hunter's Ukrainian community is calling on the region to show solidarity with the country and it's people, following the Russian invasion on Thursday.
Major cities and military installations have faced shelling, missile strikes, and heavy fighting, as Ukraine wrestles with fronts to the north, south, and east.
The Ukrainian Government is now reporting 137 people, including civilians, have been killed in the first day of fighting.
A vigil was held by the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Adamstown this morning.
Volodymyr Motyka, a representative of the Ukrainian community in the Hunter, says the mood was very sombre.
"Very, as one would expect, down," Mr Motyka said
"There's nothing uplifting other than the impression that we're getting from various people, that a resistance is being put up."
Australia has joined the United States and other allies in placing heavy sanctions on Moscow, but have stepped short of offering military support.
Ukraine's President signed a decree for general mobilisation of the population, calling up conscripts and reservists to take part over the next 90 days.
The Government says weapons will also be supplied to anyone willing to fight.
Mr Motyka says people are worried about their family and friends overseas.
He says moral support for the Ukrainian people, as well as financial support and donations from locals will go a long way.
"This can be done in the conventional way, there's Red Cross Ukraine," Mr Motyka said.
"You can do it through Rotary Australia, they are also linked to that kind of activity and support, and also Caritas, which is part of the Catholic Church with a Ukrainian arm, they do that extensively throughout the country."
Ukraine's neighbours are now preparing for an influx of refugees as war escalates and moves closer to population centres.
The United Nations expects at least 100,000 people will seek asylum to the country's west.
Mr Motyka says, while we're on the other side of the world, it's important for the Hunter to show solidarity with Ukraine.
"I think we have to maintain as much as possible, our resolve and focus on what is at stake," Mr Motyka said.
"We forget, at times, that although we live in the beautiful Hunter River area, the Hunter Region, in Australia, so far away, that we are directly connected."
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| Image credit: Ukrainian Catholic Church |
