The congregation from Munruben Church of Christ gathered to show support for Ukraine

Mrs McInnes is a former resident of Ukraine's capital Kyiv and a member of the nearby Brisbane Slavic Baptist Church, with family still residing in Ukraine.

Mrs McInnes' twin sister Natasha lives in the western city of Lviv, which has so far escaped the worst of the Russian invasion but has been subject to Russian artillery attacks.

The first few hours of the conflict were harrowing, and Mrs McInnes said her sister was initially in disbelief that their home country was being invaded.

"When the news broke that war began, it was afternoon in Australia," Mrs McInnes said.

"I saw on the news that some of the cities in Ukraine were being shelled. It was 5am and my sister was still asleep.

"After an hour I called and said 'wake up, war has begun'."

As the conflict continued, Mrs McInnes said she had grave concerns for her sister and their family, as the situation was constantly changing.

"It was difficult, you didn't know where it was going to go or what was going to happen," she said.

As the conflict continues in the country's East and the port city of Mariupol remains under siege from Russian troops, Mrs McInnes said even those .

"Mariupol is the biggest pain for Ukrainians," she said.

"A lot of Ukrainians have lost their homes, but they don't care. They know the pain people in Mariupol are going through.

"Natasha told me 'it's spring, and I can't be happy'.

"It's hard to be happy when you know the pain others are going through."

Church elder Rod Philps said the small congregation were taking matters into their own hands, after waiting for decisive action from world leaders.

"We've been waiting for world leaders to call for prayer from their people," Mr Philps said.

"We decided to do something from our perspective."