As Ukraine marks three years since Russia's invasion, Ukrainians and their supporters remain defiant.
Hundreds of people converged on Federation Square in Melbourne and across Australia on Monday to commemorate the three-year anniversary of Russia's illegal war, as European leaders demonstrated a show of unity visiting the war-torn nation.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hosted leaders from half a dozen nations to shore up support amid a widening rift between Ukraine and the US under President Donald Trump who has lurched towards Russia.
But a truce could be imminent as Mr Zelenskiy prepares to sign a deal to provide the US access to Ukraine's mineral wealth in return for support.
Demonstrators wrapped themselves in a snaking Ukrainian flag while holding photos of fallen Ukrainians and signs denouncing Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
Blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags were worn draped around shoulders and flown high in the air.
Leah Protyniak's grandparents migrated to Australia after World War II, but her remaining family in Ukraine have had their lives turned upside down.
"The men are on the front line, and the women are trying to continue to run their businesses and live their lives," she told AAP.
"It's really hard because they still have air raid sirens going off, and every time that happens, they need to close their businesses and head to shelters.
"It's still not a normal life, and nowhere is really safe."
The three-year war has torn Petr Kuzmin apart.
The Russian said the conflict was difficult to reconcile given he has family in both Ukraine and Russia, and worrying about their safety has led to mental breakdowns.
His mother's cousin and family remain in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, which was the first city to fall in Russia's initial advance but which has since been liberated by Ukrainian forces.
However, the shelling has not stopped.
"They still have houses on the street that have been bombed out completely, and it's very tiring and stressful because you never know what the next day will bring," Mr Kuzmin told AAP.
"But they believe that this is their home, and they don't want to leave so they are sticking it out."
Mr Kuzmin regularly attends rallies in support of Ukraine to show "not all Russians are for the war".
But he fears the US under Donald Trump will sell out Ukraine to Russia.
"This alliance between Trump and Putin is going to be really bad for both Ukraine and for the Russian people," he said.
Roxanne, the mother of 24-year-old former Australian soldier Sage O'Donnell who died in 2022 while fighting for Ukraine, remembered her son as a wise and natural protector.
"He sold his car, he left his job, he left friends and loved ones and a comfortable life," she told the crowd.
"He told me he could no longer lay in his bed at night knowing that men, women and children were being murdered in Ukraine."
On December 21, 2022, eight months after leaving home, his life was cut short and his mother's was changed forever.
"Even in a country so far away, I share the same tears as Ukrainian families, and know the cost is high and that it should be," she said.
Australia on Monday imposed an extra 149 sanctions on Russia, bringing the total number to more than 1400 since the start of the war on February 24, 2022.
More than $1.5 billion in aid has been committed to Ukraine after more than 46,000 Ukrainian troops were killed and another 380,000 wounded.
