The humanitarian situation in Ukraine is getting worse by the hour. The international aid organisation CARE is raising funds to support its local partner, People in Need, which has been working in Ukraine since the conflict began in 2014.

The first trucks with relief supplies are already on their way to Ukraine. They are transporting durable food, hygiene items, nappies, sleeping bags and mats.

In recent days, more than half a million people fled Ukraine for neighbouring countries. This number is expected to rise to more than one million in the next 48 hours.

CARE Australia CEO, Peter Walton, said “We are calling on Australians to donate if they can, because the need for help for the people in Ukraine and those who have fled to neighbouring countries is enormous.”

An emergency relief team from People in Need is in the city of Lviv, in Ukraine’s west. Tens of thousands of refugees are pouring into the city as sirens blare and warn about the threat of a Russian attack.

“We expect the number of refugees to increase in the coming days,” Marek Štys, head of humanitarian aid at People in Need, reports from on the ground.

Other emergency workers from the organisation are on the Slovak border, supporting people who are waiting to cross. Aid organisations are providing relief supplies, transportation, and tents – including tents specifically to keep children safe.

Help is also needed at the Romanian border near Moldova. Here, people wait in lines that stretch for miles. There is a lack of water, food and hygiene items. At all border crossings from Ukraine to neighbouring countries, relief supplies are urgently needed, as well as sanitary facilities such as mobile toilets.

Recently, children have been sent across the border alone. “The parents decide to stay in Ukraine but want to bring the children to safety,” says an emergency worker from People in Need.

Donate to CARE Australia’s Ukraine humanitarian crisis appeal: care.org.au/ukraine

For media enquiries and interviews with spokespeople in Europe and Australia, contact Iona Salter on 0413 185 634