Three days ago Olha Lyeskakova rang her family in Ukraine from Sydney, told them to grab their money and documents and leave their home in Kyiv in the middle of the night as the Russian invasion began.
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Since then, Ms Lyeskakova has barely slept. The Sydney resident has been co-ordinating her family's escape and, it's hoped, their flight to safety in Australia.
"It's madness what is going on. They are desperate, my mother is crying, my sister, everything she has earned in her life is in Kyiv," she told AAP.
Her mother Olena, sister Iryna Zaiets and nine-month-old niece Oksana first made it to western Ukraine, just 30 kilometres from the border with Poland, with Ms Lyeskakova sending regular updates from Sydney on which routes were the safest to take.
But when the attacks began even in the west of the country, the women bundled baby Oksana back into their car to drive across the border, taking little-used back streets to avoid the bombing.
The trip to Poland took 20 hours.
Ms Lyeskakova has applied for visas to get her family to Australia, but her case is under consideration by immigration authorities and made more complicated because her baby niece does not have any travel documents.
Her father and brother-in-law are still in Ukraine and, due to martial law, they cannot leave.
She says the attitude of relatives in Russia has come as a shock, especially for her mother.
"They are like zombies, they believe Putin. It's very hard for her to accept that she has no family there now, they are all enemies," Ms Lyeskakova said.
Meanwhile other Australians trying to help family in Ukraine have already had visas granted and it's now a question of escaping cities occupied by Russian troops.
One Ukrainian-Australian citizen in Sydney, whose name can't be published due to the security risk, is helping his family in hiding in the country's southern region next to the border with occupied Crimea.
He told AAP they are hiding underground, where their supplies of food and water are running low.
He has applied for four visas to Australia, and is thankful the Australian government granted the first within 15 hours.
But he's at a loss as to how his family can escape Ukraine.
"I spoke to Mum on the phone yesterday and she is stressed very much, afraid for their lives. They are not getting any sleep at all," he said.
Meanwhile, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has offered spaces for potential Ukrainian refugees displaced by the invasion.
"NSW is ready to assist the Commonwealth in whatever way necessary should this military action result in significant displacement of Ukrainian people from their homeland," he said in a letter addressed to the federal government.
"My government is more than willing to facilitate the resettlement of Ukrainians seeking to make Australia their new home.
He noted his state would be willing to take on new arrivals as additional to the current federal allocations for people on humanitarian and refugee visas.
"We have a strong Ukrainian community here in Sydney and I am confident any new arrivals will be welcomed with open arms," Mr Perrottet said.
Australia will provide non-lethal military and medical aid to Ukraine through NATO, with support guided by requests from Kyiv.
Australian Associated Press
