EVEN if most Hunter residents have the deepest sympathies for a war-torn citizenry defending itself against an invading army, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a distant conflict with which they have no direct connection.
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That is not the case, however, for those Australians born in Ukraine - put at more than 13,300 at the 2016 census, and swelling to almost 40,000 when citizens of Ukrainian descent are included.
The war in Ukraine is also closer to home for Australians of Russian descent - about 20,000 at the 2016 Census - and members of this country's Russian community have taken part in protests against the aggression of their president, Vladimir Putin.
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Australia had Ukrainian migrants before WWII, but the Hunter's Ukrainian community had its genesis after the war, when some 2000 adults and 1000 children arrived as displaced persons after the bloodbath in Europe.
Another wave of Ukrainians came here after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Ukraine is often tagged as "Europe's breadbasket" for the rich black soils that support a strong agricultural sector, and modern-era Ukrainians have found farm work in the Upper Hunter.
While few, if any, desire war, the strength of the Ukrainian resistance has gladdened the hearts of those far away from the fighting, and given rise to hopes that an ostensibly stronger Russian military can be kept in check, or perhaps defeated outright.
Australia's physical isolation has spared the continent the horrors of full-scale military warfare - the Japanese attack on Darwin, the shelling of Newcastle and Sydney Harbour and the loss of coastal shipping notwithstanding.
But for the people of Ukraine - and for most of Europe - armed conflict has been a regular if not constant threat. Ukraine has been at the centre of a tug-of-war between Russia and the West since the 1991 Soviet collapse.
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An estimated 15,000 people died in the Donbass region battles beginning in 2014, which also saw the shooting down of passenger flight MH17, with 38 Australians among the 298 killed.
Western democracy is not perfect but it must be defended against totalitarian aggression.
The parallels between China and Taiwan are obvious.
As is the need for Russia's aggression - and its refusal to accept the will of a people - to be repelled.
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