How Australians can help Ukraine

Australians can help the millions suffering in Ukraine by donating to an urgent appeal to fund medical and food relief.

Australians can help the millions suffering in Ukraine by donating to an urgent appeal to fund medical and food relief.

As the bombs rain down on the capital Kyiv, Australians with family in Ukraine have set up a special charity fund.

The Ukraine Crisis Appeal will send cash to the charity Caritas, which has workers on the ground in the war-torn country.

A man looks at a damaged building in Mironova Street in Donetsk after a shelling attack. Tension began to escalate in Donbass. Picture: Supplied

Australia’s Ukrainian community was desperately trying to raise $500,000 by Monday, with $140,000 pledged so far.

They have set up a website www.ukrainecrisisappeal.org for those who want to help.

“People can donate $1 or whatever they like. We have partnered with Caritas because we are not sure of the future of the banks in Ukraine – Caritas has ways of getting it there,” Slawko Kohut, of the Association of Ukrainians, said.

He said he had been “overwhelmed” with the support of the wider community as Ukraine faces one of its darkest hours.

A woman pours soup to give to Ukrainian refugees in Ubla, Slovakia. According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR 100,000 Ukrainians have been displaced since Russia invaded Ukraine. Picture: Zuzana Gogova/Getty Images

Mr Kohut said money raised would go to hospitals in Ukraine, which were bracing for a wave of people injured in the Russian bombing.

A range of other charities were also taking donations.

United Help Ukraine has been using cash to provide medical equipment and transport for years in the conflict in the east of the country.

They are taking donations via their website www.unitedhelpukraine.org by credit card and PayPal.

Helena from Lviv is seen at the Medyka pedestrian border crossing, in eastern Poland following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Picture: AFP

The Ukrainian Red Cross is taking donations via its website redcross.org.ua/donate/ and Save the Children has set up a special appeal for Ukraine, warning many children there “are now being forced from their homes in subzero temperatures; exposed to injury, hunger and horror.” They are taking donations at www.savethechildren.org

Care Australia revealed there were already three million people in Ukraine needing help due to the conflict in the east of the country which preceded Russia’s invasion. The charity is taking donations on their website: www.care.org.au