Agony of Australians who fear for their loved ones in devastated Ukraine

Australians with family in Ukraine have told of the horror of listening to bombs exploding as they spoke to loved ones when Russian forces began their assault.

Aussie teacher Olena Rizk could hear the bombs dropping in the background as she spoke to her terrified elderly parents in the Eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

The sound was deafening leaving Ms Rizk afraid that every moment that passes her parents might be the next casualties – unless they can escape.

“I have a range of emotions. It’s a feeling of shock, hatred and then at the same time a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness that I’m here and I can’t grab my parents and bring them,” Ms Rizk, from Sydney, said.

“My mum was telling me that if the Russian troops come, she is hoping they don’t shoot them.”

Ms Rizk said her parents were hoping to flee into a neighbouring country but she doesn’t know how or when.

“My parents are like children now and I feel like I’m the adult who needs to help them and I can’t do anything. It’s horrible.

Ms Rizk joined 200 Ukrainian expats and Russian supporters who took to the streets of Sydney on Friday to express concern for loved ones stuck and in possibly in mortal danger after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian community demonstrate in Sydney’s CBD calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops in Ukraine. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Braving wet and stormy weather, the protesters clad in the nation’s blue and yellow colours chanted “unleash the sanctions from hell on Russia” and “stop Putin now”.

Rally organiser Anton Bogdanovych described anguish his parents and siblings were suffering after being woken in the middle of the night, in Kyiv, to the sounds of explosions.

“In the backyard of my brother’s home he saw a missile land and luckily it did not explode and did not kill him,” he said.

“We have parents, we have relatives, we have friends and we want to do something about it,” he said.

An emotional Anna Berladin stood alongside her grandparents, who came to Australia for a holiday two months ago, knowing they could’ve been easily one of hundreds of Ukrainians killed in the past 24 hours.

Despite being grateful her grandparents are safe, Ms Berladin — who moved to Australia 10 years ago — still holds grave fears for her relatives, including her uncle, who has been ordered to enlist with the military.

Ms Berladin said her family had already been forced to use secret chat apps to communicate with relatives back home. And she fears it will get more difficult as the crisis worsens.

“The Russians hacked Viber and WhatsApp so at the moment most of us are using Telegram,” she said.

Sydneysiders turned out in big numbers to show their support for Ukraine. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Families in Australia are waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

“Communication happens once every 6-12 hours but it’s now getting worse as the landlines aren’t working and the phone numbers are getting cut off due to power cuts.

“We are now working with lawyers at the moment to try and keep my grandparents in Australia because there is no way they can go back now to Ukraine.

“It feels like severe bullying and real genocide. I didn’t think in this 21st century we would still be dealing with this especially in Europe.

“The big question is what will Australia do to help my grandparents stay here? A lot of the Ukrainians are visiting here in Australia and need to stay because it’s not safe to go back.”

At other capital city rallies on Friday, there were calls for tougher sanctions on Russia as well as military and financial support for Ukraine to defend itself.

The Ukrainian Council of NSW media spokesman Stefan Romaniw said many Ukrainian Australians were anxiously sitting by the phones waiting for news of their families.

Mr Romaniw said the council and community wanted Australia and other countries to introduce as part of the sanctions the banning of Russian SWIFT codes from the banking payment system to stop the flow of Russian money in and out of Russia.