Canberra real estate Agent Nathan Burraston has been sending metal detectors to Ukraine to hunt for landmines

But when horrific images of death and destruction began flooding Canberra real estate agent Nathan Burraston's social media feeds, he knew he had to act.

"I'm 37 years old, I've never protested anything in my life, and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia is probably the worst thing I've seen," Mr Burraston said.

"So I got involved [via a Ukrainian colleague] with their community and thought, 'what more can we do to help these people on the other side of the world?'"

The answer came via a Ukrainian colonel who had been sent to Australia to advise on what equipment was most needed.

"I learned about the huge problem of landmines they're facing, as all of the liberated areas seem to have been planted with not thousands, but millions of landmines."

According to a recent report from the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining more than 80,000 unexploded mines have already been removed from Ukraine, but clearing the entire country is likely to take decades and hamper rebuilding efforts.

As a boy Mr Burraston had combed open spaces with an Australian-made metal detector, and he reached out to the company Garrett Australia to explain his plan to send hundreds of the devices over to help with the mine-removal effort.

They agreed to help, offering a competitive price on bulk purchases of their devices. But attempts to get financial support from both the federal and ACT governments fell flat and crowdfunding platform GoFundMe removed the group's page, citing changing conditions in the country making the fundraiser incompatible with their policies and local regulations.

In the end, gin provided a solution to the problem.

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"I remembered before the last election a very creative fundraising bottle for One Nation called Aussie Spirit. It turned out to be from a Queensland company Sunshine & Sons, so I sent them an email saying, 'you've done this for a political party, would you be involved in working with us to raise money for Ukraine?', and that's where the connection started."

Along with a change to a different crowdfunding platform Chuffed, Mr Burraston and a small group of volunteers have been able to raise more than $70,000 which has resulted in 150 metal detectors already in use hunting for mines in Ukraine, with more purchases and shipments planned.

Ukrainian Inna Popova and her young son fled her home of Kharkiv as Russian troops began to pound the city.

She sends videos of the Canberra community protesting outside the Russian embassy back home, and in return, they send footage of the Australian metal detectors being used to clear their land.

"I have a friend in the military over there, he has an Australian flag next to the Ukrainian flag in his military room. People are very thankful [for Australian supplies], I suppose it supports them, they see the people far away care."

Mr Burraston said despite the pallets of equipment already sent, it will take hundreds more metal detectors and other supplies to meet the huge demand.

For Ms Popova, while she's happy to be safe for now, she longs for the day the war ends and it will be safe to return.

"I hope it will soon end, I pray and I wish for it too much."

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