Ukrainian Australians keep hope alive amid fears for families in war zone

Jaroslav Koptchak moved to Australia from Ukraine in 1992 but has returned most years to see his mother and brother who still live in the city of Lviv, in the country’s west.

Even though his family, more than 700 kilometres from the Russian border, was comparatively safe, when he was asked on Sunday how they were coping with the Russian invasion, he filled with emotion.

Jaroslav Koptchak marches on Sunday with his four-year-old daughter Margaret.Credit: Paul Jeffers

“I need to be there,” said Mr Koptchak, who was at a rally in Federation Square to support the people of Ukraine.

He said his brother could drive to Poland 20 kilometres away if he needed to flee quickly.

“He could jump in a car and basically be under NATO territory. But he’s not going; he said he is going to stay there,” Mr Koptchak added, nearing tears and saying he wanted to be with his family.

His wife Sasha’s mother lives in the town of Zaporizhzhia, in the country’s south-east, closer to the Russian border.

Crowds gather in Federation Square on Sunday to support the people of Ukraine.

“She has just spent a whole night underground, beneath the flats where they live,” Mr Koptchak said. “She is a nurse who works in an eye hospital and [after the night underground] needed to go to work because boys arrived with eye injuries from the front line.”

He said many Ukrainians, having survived the previous three days, were hopeful they could withstand the invasion.

“Putin was hoping the first rockets across the country, after that the country [Ukraine] would give up. He hoped before the world woke up to it, it would all be finished. That hasn’t worked and now every single day works in favour of Ukraine.”

About 3000 people marched from Treasury Gardens on Sunday afternoon and rallied at Federation Square, where speakers voiced their support for Ukraine.

Among them was state Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, whose Ukrainian grandparents fled Stalin’s Soviet Union in 1949. Mr Guy said Australians were gathering on Sunday “to stand up for Ukraine when it needs it the most”.

He spoke with family in Ukraine over the weekend and said there were signs the Russians would not succeed in taking the country by force.

“Because Ukrainians are not crazy, but they’re not cowards either, and when I spoke to two of my family [members] yesterday … one said to me, ‘We’re holding on … We’re on our own land and we will win,’ ” Mr Guy said.

He said the Russian ambassador to Australia “should be given a one-way ticket back to Moscow”.

Earlier on Sunday, worshippers gathered at SS Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in North Melbourne to pray in support of Ukraine and against the Russian occupation.

People at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in North Melbourne on Sunday morning.Credit: Wayne Taylor

“Our hearts go out to the 44 million innocent men, women and children of Ukraine who must now face war, suffering and deprivation,” said Stefan Romaniw, co-chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations. “We are also praying for peace.”

Former prime minister Tony Abbott and former AFL coach Kevin Sheedy lit candles of peace for Ukraine.

Kevin Sheedy lights a candle at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral.Credit: Wayne Taylor

At the rally, former federal opposition leader Bill Shorten said Australians had “worked out that Putin is a dishonourable, disreputable dictator” and they knew “Ukraine’s fight today is our struggle tomorrow”.

A crowd of about 3000 people march along Collins Street from Treasury Gardens.

Ukraine was not just a “country far, far away”, Mr Shorten said.

“What happens in Ukraine will affect Australia from our petrol prices to inflation in the world economy. But even more importantly than that, this fight in Ukraine is everyone’s business, is everyone’s struggle, because we believe in this country in freedom.”

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