Pambula Fruit Market owner Tetyana Demetriou, who lives in Eden on the NSW Far South Coast, holds grave concerns for her family whose health concerns mean they cannot leave their war-torn city of Kharkiv, which borders Russia.

Ms Demetriou said the situation was really complex for her parents, both in their late 60s, and her 33-year-old brother as he suffers from a serious blood condition that requires daily medication. Her mother has also been recovering from a bad COVID-19 infection that has left her with pneumonia.

Even if Ms Demetriou's parents were well enough to try to flee across the border into Russia where they have relatives, they would not leave their son behind in Ukraine.

Due to the country's conscription policy, all men aged 18 to 60 must remain in the country by law.

Ms Demetriou said for men who were missing limbs or had a serious medical condition, they were not currently required to fight, however that could change in the future.

"He can't go to war, he lives on tablets," she said.

"They have an apartment and they're just staying inside and unable to leave because of the bombing. Sometimes they have no water and no electricity, or internet so they cannot call anyone," she said.

Ms Demetriou's parents already had their visas approved to travel to Australia in early 2022 after the Australian borders were finally reopened, however her brother's visa remained stagnated.

READ ALSO: Escalating Ukraine conflict hits home for Bega residents

Her parents and brother had often visited her, as well as her sister who lives in East Gippsland.

hey had not been able to travel to Australia for about three years having had their visits pushed back by the Black Summer bushfires, and any travel plans cancelled during the COVID-19 outbreak.

"I don't know when they would be able to come. As soon as we get a visa for my brother we would then think about how to get them out here, but for now they cannot leave."

Ms Demetriou described herself as someone who does not engage with politics at all.

"It's not my cup of tea, I don't understand anything about it because I'm not interested in it, I just like to live my life nice and peacefully, that's all.

"I'm feeling really bad, I'm feeling really bad for them, there's nothing you can do to help. It's really painful for me because I have a lot of relatives and friends in Ukraine," she said.

Ms Demetriou said she hadn't been able to speak to her relatives in Russia about the conflict due to the large time differences and her own family commitments here.

Candelo wool farmer Tabitha Bilaniwskyj-Zarins worries for her family and friends in villages Trebukhive and Brovary, eastern gateways to Kyiv.

Tabitha has spent time in Ukraine teaching English to children and reconnected with long-lost family members there during a visit in 2017 for the Eurovision Song Contest.

"It deeply affects me and it deeply worries me, as I know it does many people connected to Ukraine in my small rural community here," she told the ABC.

"Everyone is asking 'how is your family?' 'How are the children?' And I feel helpless.

"They're all on the main highway that goes all the way from Kyiv to Moscow, so that's why there's a big focus on an attack there," said Ms Bilaniwskyj-Zarins.

Her grandmother fled to Australia after World War II. At that point she had already survived Holodomor, the great famine in Soviet Ukraine between 1932 an 1933, and having been a forced Soviet labourer.

Air raids, bombings, and shelling have all been a daily occurrence for people in these regional villages.

Ms Bilaniwskyj-Zarins has been in daily contact with her aunt, Natasha Chopik, who sends her updates about what has been happening on the ground, the most recent update she had was as follows:

Ms Bilaniwskyj-Zarins was also concerned that those in villages would not be able to sustain their agrarian lifestyle, whereby they eat most of what they grow.

"It's getting really desperate now because they should be starting to seed and prepare the ground and greenhouses for sowing the crops.

"The summer period is very short so they've got to get their seedlings in. Once you get to autumn you can't grow anything and then it gets to minus-30 in winter," she said.

RECENT NEWS:

Her family had reported to her that people were getting desperate for food and supplies, and what was needed was money to help those stuck in Ukraine, but the only way to get money into the country was to have someone you could send money directly to.

"It has to be a bank account that accepts US dollars, if it's a regular account you can't send money."

Ms Bilaniwskyj-Zarins and her family members have been collecting through a GoFundMe account. They have already managed to raise $4405 to go towards affected civilians in Ukraine.

"We're raising money as a family; my father, his sisters, my sister, and my cousin all live here, so we're all sending money to our family there.

"We are cautiously sending every day when my aunty says she can go and get cash out from Kyiv, so the post service might open for half a day and people can get money out," she said.

READ ALSO: Russia won't guarantee aid access amid reports of children's hospital bombing

Ms Bilaniwskyj-Zarins' aunt has been taking out the funds and giving them to the village council that manages the town. The council then distributes them appropriately between the 10,000 occupants.

"A little bit goes a really long way over there and my aunty says that the whole village thanks us because we are the only family who are able to bring money into the village," she said.

She said the money was being used for non-lethal aid like medical equipment, food and supplies, as well as communication devices such as walkie-talkies.

Ms Bilaniwskyj-Zarins believed the support effort from international governments had been suboptimal.

"This is history repeating, exactly the way it was nearly 80 years ago now. We have to learn from the past.

"Putin is breaking international and social laws, and nobody's doing anything about it. I'm kind of losing faith in any government, in any kind of establishment, how are any of us safe?"

READ ALSO: Price of fuel, food to increase as Russia-Ukraine conflict escalates

She also warned people of the repercussions that would continue to affect the globe.

"They're one of the major food exporters of grain and oils.

"There's a huge flow on effect, I saw recently that people in Egypt are already lining up for bread rations because of the fact that there's no grain coming in from Ukraine. The Middle East are their greatest importer.

"Food is their lifeblood and they are the food bowl of Europe," she said.