A soccer match will be held at Adamstown on Sunday to raise money for the Ukraine Crisis Appeal.
Organiser James Sneesby, who has Ukrainian heritage, said the match was one way people in Newcastle could help the cause.
"A lot of people have been feeling helpless about what they can do about something that's thousands of kilometres away," Mr Sneesby said.
He said the soccer match - a Newcastle versus Sydney clash - was a way to raise money and awareness.
The match will be named after Oleksandr Matsievskyi, a Ukrainian soldier and POW who Russian soldiers executed while he was unarmed.
"It's important to keep the war in people's minds. And soccer is my passion and it's huge in Ukraine," Mr Sneesby said.
The crisis appeal, run through Rotary, buys food, clothing and medicine for people in Ukraine. It also helps build shelter, provide mental health support and ensure displaced people can live in safety.
Mr Sneesby has cousins, uncles and aunties in Ukraine.
"We brought one of our cousins, Olia, over early last year," he said.
The Newcastle Herald reported in February that Adrian Jablonski proposed to Olia Mykulyshyn at Burwood Lookout, after he arranged for "marry me" to be skywritten above.
"That was her getting engaged to my friend," Mr Sneesby said.
His family is in west Ukraine, which "we thought was relatively safe".
The house Olia had been living in, though, was "hit by a stray missile after she left".
"No one died thank goodness. Olia saw pictures of the house with the windows and doors blown out."
When he speaks to family in Ukraine, "it's always in mind that they're literally in a war zone".
"Almost everyone over there knows someone who's been killed or wounded or experienced some sort of trauma," he said.
There's a lot of uncertainty, but there's also hope.
"Ukrainians are very stoic, proud and strong people," he said.
"They have a lot of hope that they'll come through in the end and their armed forces will do the job and keep them safe."
Mr Sneesby was in Ukraine in 2019.
"We'd planned to go over in March last year," he said.
When talking to family there, "we say we can't wait to visit after the war".
"There's always that sombre moment of when will that be? It doesn't seem foreseeable at the moment."
The all-age soccer match is expected to attract a good crowd.
"It'll be a wonderful mix of the young and fit and old and fat," Mr Sneesby said, with a chuckle.
"It'll be interesting because apparently the Sydney team has trained, which is a bit nerve-wracking because we certainly haven't.
"We have a group chat. That's as much training as we've done."
The Newcastle team, though, has "a couple of decent players we've stolen from around the traps".
"We heard they have some over 40s, so hopefully they aren't too fit."
The Sydney team organiser Mick Lanycia joked that "I only play to win".
Mr Lanycia said his team did have a couple of training sessions, which caused "a couple of injuries".
He hoped that "everybody enjoys themselves" during the game.
As for the game's cause, he couldn't believe the war could happen "in this day and age".
"The whole thing with Russia is ridiculous."
The match will kick off at Myers Park at 11.30am.
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