![LOOKING BACK: Former Wodonga resident Ray Slywka with his family members from the Ukraine Halyna and Stepan Nukyforuk. Picture: JAMES WILTSHIRE LOOKING BACK: Former Wodonga resident Ray Slywka with his family members from the Ukraine Halyna and Stepan Nukyforuk. Picture: JAMES WILTSHIRE](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/128816459/48477df1-da19-42f1-98ca-bb9616ed4c5a.jpg/r0_0_3648_5472_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A Ukrainian mother and father whose sons are still in Ukraine visited the grave of their great-grandfather in Wodonga on Sunday.
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Stepan Nykyforuk and his wife, Halyna, arrived in Australia in April after Stepan's uncle and former Wodonga resident Ray Slywka sponsored their travel.
"I picked them up at the Melbourne airport, I'd organised the tickets for them from Poland because they were heading back to Ukraine, but I said you can't go back there because there's a war on," Mr Slywka said.
"Where they were staying in Poland, in Warsaw, there was 21 people to a two-bedroom unit, very very crowded, because the refugees were coming across from Ukraine to Poland, which was their closest border.
Mr Slywka wanted to show Stepan his family history and tell him about Dymtro Slywka (Stepan's great-grandfather and Ray's grandfather), who came to Australia in 1949 and worked in Eurobin on a tobacco farm.
Mrs Nykyforuk, speaking through a translation app, said the couple were glad to have visited the grave.
"And we are very relieved that we are here," she said.
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They have two sons left back in Ukraine; a 22-year-old on the front line and an 18-year-old at home in the village.
Mr Slywka said the couple had been speaking every day to their sons, but they were "very stressed".
"This is not an easy time for them," he said.
Mr and Mrs Nykyforuk were working as builders in Poland, but since arriving in Australia have been working in an apple orchard while they wait for more documentation.
Mrs Nykyforuk said they planned to send money back for their sons, who could distribute it within their communities.
"We need any work because we need to help people in Ukraine," she said.
"We will learn English and we will look for a job."
When asked if they planned to ever return home the pair were certain they would.
"Yes, this is Ukraine, it is our country," Mrs Nykyforuk said.
"We were born there, we love it there, our children are there."
Mrs Nykyforuk said the Australians they'd met so far had been empathetic.
"People are very worried about Ukraine and want to help people," she said.
"We are very helped by all the Australian people, we are grateful to them for this support of us, thank you people."
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