The Advertiser Foundation raises more than $90k already for Ukrainian refugees

There were emotion-charged scenes at the Arkaba as The Advertiser Foundation welcomed Ukrainian refugee families to our state. Read their extraordinary stories.

Premier Peter Malinauskas has pledged $25,000 to The Advertiser Foundation’s Uk­raine appeal, taking the total to $90,000 that will be distributed to refugees who have arrived in South Australia with little more than a suitcase of clothes after escaping war in their homeland.

In announcing the donation on Tuesday, Mr Malinauskas also said SA would take in even more Ukrainian refugees if the federal government was willing to accept more people escaping the Russian invasion.

“I see an opportunity for Australia to accommodate so many more Ukrainians,’’ Mr Malinauskas told The Advertiser Foundation’s pub lunch to welcome refugees to SA.

“Should the federal government allow for a substantial increase in humanitarian visas, we’ll be able to accommodate up to 1000 here in SA.’’

The Advertiser Foundation distributed $2000 cash cards on Tuesday to 50 newly arrived Ukrainian families as well as Foodland gift bags and toys for children. Donations have been received from government as well as businesses and readers of The Advertiser.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, said it meant a lot to him as “a wartime ambassador’’ that so many people wanted to help his country.

The Advertiser Foundation Ukraine Fundraiser lunch at the Arkaba. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

“The level of hardship people are experiencing in Ukraine is unfair,’’ he said. “It’s just incomprehensible what they have gone through. He outlined the atrocities committed by Russian troops on Ukrainians.

“We are talking about rape and murder and summary executions,’’ he said.

“We’re talking about taking civilians as prisoners of war, forced migration. This is something we could never imagine.’’

Mr Myroshnychenko thank­ed the Australian government for contributing military and humanitarian assistance, as well as backing global sanctions against the Putin regime.

“I understand that there will be more assistance coming because Ukraine needs it, and I’m certainly thankful because, one day, we need to rebuild the country and I hope it’s going to happen soon,” he said.

Mr Malinauskas said the world had been inspired by the “extraordinary courage of the Ukrainian people’’.

“Ukrainian people are standing up to Putin and showing the valour of the human spirit and sending a message to everybody around the world that they are on the forefront of liberty and freedom and are going to prevail,’’ he said.

Gallery: Adelaide digs deep to welcome Ukraine refugees

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Mum’s eternal love for hero son

Ina desperately wants to return home to war-ravaged Ukraine to visit her son’s grave.

Anatoliy was killed on March 9 by Russian soldiers. By the time she found her son was dead, the 82-year-old grandmother had already been forced to flee the small village of Petrushki, about 30km west of the capital Kyiv.

Petrushki had been flattened by the invading Russians.

The little town was on the main thoroughfare used by the invading tanks as they headed towards Kyiv. Anatoly was one of those trying to halt the tanks, trying to repel them from reaching Kyiv.

“The incoming troops flattened all the houses that were in the way so everything they passed, they destroyed,’’ Ina said.

Now in Adelaide, Ina’s story slowly unravels as she speaks through a translator but the emotion in her voice and face speaks volumes.

Her son did not survive the Russian brutality.

“On the 9th of March, he waved goodbye to me,’’ she said.

“I waited for him in the evening and he didn’t come home the next day. I knew that something had happened.’’

Ina tried Anatoliy’s phone again and again. On the 13th time she tried to ring Anatoliy’s phone, it was answered by another soldier who said her son had been killed. Now she is desperate to go back to Ukraine.

“I want to go back to see the place where my son is buried,’’ she said.

She told of the last piece of advice her son gave her as she prepared to escape.

“He said, ‘Mother, when you are running and you hear something, just drop to the ground and cover your head’ and I kept doing that when the sky was black (because of the bombing).’’

Ina was far from alone on Tuesday in sharing a tragic story as The Advertiser Foundation hosted a pub lunch at the Arkaba Hotel to welcome refugees from Ukraine.

Premier Peter Malinauskas, Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor and Ukraine ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko were among those in a room festooned with blue and yellow and sunflowers.

Some didn’t want to tell their stories because it was too difficult to keep the raw nerve of emotion under control and they knew it would provoke an outpouring of tears.

Others found comfort in the company of other refugees.

There was stillness in the room as Mr Myroshnychenko urged solidarity with Ukraine and as refugee Vasylyna Smoliak told of the depravity of the invading Russian soldiers.

The Emergency SA Ukrainian appeal has raised almost $100,000 and 50 Ukrainian families, who arrived with little more than a suitcase, received a $2000 cash card to help them settle in SA.

There were also gift bags from Foodland and gifts for the ­children.

Advertiser editor Gemma Jones said the idea was to help “with essentials and to ease the burden during a very traumatic time’’.

“While your time in South Australia is not something you could have imagined, you could not be more welcome here,’’ she said.

Eight-year-old Anastasia was happy to pose for photographs for The Advertiser. “I liked the photo shoot because I felt like a Hollywood star,’’ she said.

Her 10-year-old brother Max was impressed by the important people who had shown up to demonstrate their support.

“I was excited I was in the same room as the people who ruled the state,’’ Max said. Kyiv resident Volodymyr said Russian Vladimir Putin wanted to wipe Ukraine off the map.

“He just wants to get rid of Ukraine. And this war, whether yesterday or today, was going to happen,’’ he said.

You can donate to help refugees settle in South Australia at ShoutforGood.com - click here or search for Emergency SA Ukrainian Response Appeal.

Originally published as The Advertiser Foundation raises more than $90k already for Ukrainian refugees