Iryna with her husband Vadym and little Maksym. Photo / Supplied
Australians have shared the harsh reality of evacuating their friends and family from Ukraine as Russia continues its bombardment of the country. These are the people that are giving everything to get their loved ones to safety.
Jason Marrable, from the Gold Coast, said his connecting flight from Singapore to Warsaw in Poland saw him surrounded by men in military clothing, many of them Canadian ex-servicemen and all of them heading to Ukraine to help fight the Russians.
Unlike his fellow passengers, Marrable wasn't going to fight, he was on a rescue mission. He had flown from Brisbane last Saturday to escort his Ukrainian sister-in-law Iryna and her nine-month-old baby Maksym to safety in Australia.
Their journey out of Ukraine had been a devastating one. Iryna had set out with her husband Vadym and their young son, with all their belongings in one plastic bag. In the end only two of them made it to Poland.
Iryna, Vadym and Maksym were in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv when the bombs started falling. They initially didn't have enough money to get out, so the family spent three days hiding in an underground bunker. They were finally able to make a run for it, catching a train to Lviv, the closest city to the Polish border.
The family had almost arrived when their train was stopped and the Ukrainian army got on, removing all men between 18 and 65 years of age to fight on the front line. Vadym was one of those men.
Iryna and her baby were forced to fend for themselves as they made their way across the war-battered city. After finally making it to Lviv, the mother and child were faced with another 30 hour journey across the border and into Poland.
With no pram, stroller or nappies, Iryna had to hold Maksym the whole time. There was also no food and no baby formula.
In temperatures of -5 degrees, Iryna and some of the other mothers had no choice but to go up to farms, where the animals were all inside due to the freezing weather, to beg for milk and chewed up pieces of food to give to their babies.
It was after this horrific journey that the mother and child finally arrived in Warsaw. Polish mothers had left prams and children's clothes at the station to help the refugees. From this kindness, Iryna was able to get a pram and a change of clothes for her son.
Marrable recounted the moment when he finally saw his sister-in-law and nephew.
"It was a pretty emotional experience. She's got very limited English and all she could say over and over again through tears was, 'We safe, we safe, we safe.'"
With the first stretch of their journey over, the next step is to bring them to Australia. That in itself is no easy feat. To come to Australia, Ukrainian refugees need visas plus documentation and money in order to apply. Airline tickets also need to be purchased.
As many Ukrainians left their homes with nothing, the financial expense is extremely hard to overcome and providing documentation is difficult.
On top of that, they need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to be allowed into Australia. This has become a problem as many Ukrainians remain unvaccinated.
Just before the invasion on February 24, only 34 per cent of the country's population had received their vaccinations. Marrable and Iryna spent their first day in Warsaw trying to find her a vaccine.
On Wednesday, they are making the trip to Germany to wait for visas. Once in Australia, the nature of the visa means that Iryna will be unable to work or have access to Medicare.
As a result, Marrable and his family will need to continually support her for the duration of her 12-month visa. To help with the cost, he and his wife Nataliya, who is Iryna's sister in Australia, have set up a GoFundMe page.
They are hoping to use the money so that Iryna and Maksym do not need to start from scratch and can afford adequate psychological and medical help after seeing the horrors of war as well as English lessons and baby supplies.
"What does the future look like?" asked Mr Marrable. "I don't know. The apartment block that they lived in has now been bombed.
"What have they got to go back to? Her husband is in a desperate situation, there's just no sugar-coating it. He's either going to fight and live or fight and die. In the meantime, they need medical care, child care, normality for them both."
Jason and Nataliya Marrable are not the only Australians fighting to get their loved ones to safety. Sydney-based photographer Vladimir Kravchenko has been anxious to get his family out of Ukraine and has been raising money to help his cousin Anna get safely into Australia.
Anna, an IT specialist, is no stranger to war, having lived in Crimea when the Russians annexed the province back in 2014. She fled to Lviv where she has been living for almost eight years. Now, her one-bedroom apartment is filled with people, as she shelters those fleeing from the fighting in the east.
"It's very stressful [for Anna]. There have been air raid sirens and procedures a few times a day but lately there's been a lot more as Russia seems to have started trying to bomb everything," Kravchenko said.
As Anna is trying to leave Ukraine, she still has the perilous journey over the Polish border ahead and is worried about what will happen to those staying in her apartment that she will leave behind.
Kravchenko hopes the money he raises will help get her safely across the border and on a plane to Australia.
Most of the money, however, will go towards supporting her once she arrives in the country, as she will be unable to work.
Even though she would be staying with Mr Kravchenko's parents on the Central Coast, the family is afraid they will not be able to support her without help.
"It would be a great thing if the government could change the conditions of these visas for refugees to allow them to do work while they're here," he said. "Then they wouldn't be reliant on other people's charity and would contribute to the economy."
Iain Jones, from NSW's south coast knows first-hand the financial stress of supporting loved ones in Ukraine.
So far he has spent over $3500 helping his girlfriend Svitlana and her daughter Marina flee from their home in Ukraine's southern port city of Odessa. Marina is five months pregnant and her fiancee is fighting on the front line. She doesn't know if she'll ever see him again.
Jones helped the two get a car to take them across the border to Moldova and set them up in a temporary apartment. Despite working full-time he is struggling to afford the cost of protecting his loved ones. The visas and cost of a migration agent came to $956 alone.
On top of that, plane tickets need to be paid for. Any medical expenses for Marina will also come out of his pocket as she will not have access to Medicare.
As a result he has, like the Marrable family and Kravcheko, set up a GoFundMe page to help with some of the cost.
"It's a struggle, I'm just a normal Australian who cares about two people and their situation. I can't help everyone but I can help these two," he said.
"I'm worried because there are a lot of people getting granted visas that actually have no means of support in Australia."
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