Ukrainian President to address University of Newcastle

BY DAKOTA TAIT

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address students at the University of Newcastle on Wednesday.

The video-link address has been extended by the Australian National University, who are hosting the broadcast.

Students and staff are being invited to a lecture hall at Callaghan at 4pm tomorrow, for a 4:30pm start.

Students are also being invited to submit questions to the Ukrainian President, which he'll answer in a Q&A session after his address and an introduction from ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop.

Newcastle to celebrate cultural diversity in weekend festival

BY OLIVIA DILLON

Newcastle residents are invited to celebrate the region's rich cultural diversity this weekend. 

The seventh annual Newcastle: Unity in Diversity Festival will take place from 11am-4pm at Foreshore Park on Saturday. 

Each year, the festival marks the end of Refugee Week, and event organisers Unity in Diversity and STARTTS, said the event has gained more support from the community each year. 

"It started as very small festival in Civic Park. I think there were probably 100 people who came to the first festival," said event coordinator Jo McGregor of STARTTS. 

"This was designed to create a wonderful celebration of inclusivity in terms of cultural diversity in Newcastle, and every year it's grown and grown and grown," she said. 

This year's event will feature over 20 cultural performances and workshops, including Tibetan throat singing and Latin and Congolese dance. 

As usual, the event will also host a plethora of international food stalls, with a special focus this year on Ukrainian food and culture, namely "Yuri's Ukrainian Food". 

"Yuri is newly arrived to Newcastle and is very excited to share his Ukrainian food with people," Ms McGregor said. 

"There is conflict occurring globally around the world and I think it's a really great way to welcome Ukrainian community members here in Newcastle, as well as anyone who is part of the Newcastle community. We do have a traditional welcoming here in Newcastle, and this festival is a really wonderful sign of that unity in diversity."

The community is encouraged to meet at Newcastle Foreshore near the Tramsheds at the festival's opening, to take part in the Welcome Walk, Indigenous welcome and smoke ceremony. 

The Newcastle: Unity in Diversity Festival will take place at Foreshore Park on Saturday.

University of Newcastle offering support to staff and students impacted by Ukraine conflict

BY DAKOTA TAIT

The University of Newcastle says it will provide support to students and staff affected by the conflict in Ukraine. 

Students are being encouraged to access personal and academic support through the University, and staff through the Employee Assistance Program.

Vice-Chancellor Alex Zelinsky made a statement to staff on Monday, saying his parents were Russian-Ukrainian refugees and he's been personally saddened by the events in Eastern Europe.

Professor Zelinsky said his son Misha had also been in Kyiv, reporting for Australian and international media. 

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic Mark Hoffman says the University has a large Ukrainian community, and they deserve solidarity.

"We have quite a number of staff and students, who were actually born in the Ukraine," Mr Hoffman said.

"We don't have any, strictly speaking, international students, but we have students who were born in Ukraine and are now starting at the University of Newcastle."

"It's very distressing for them to see what's in the media, they're likely hearing from friends and family in the Ukraine, and it would be extremely distressing for them to hear what's happening to their homeland, the place they left not so many years ago."

Ukrainian community urging the Hunter to show solidarity amid Russian invasion

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."

Image credit: Ukrainian Catholic Church