"The bombing was very close to my institute and parts of the facade were damaged," he said.

"In this situation it's very difficult to work. The main difficulty is that each minute you know that there is a war and you don't know what will be next."

The nano-physicist arrived in Canberra last week as a guest of the Australian National University, continuing his work away from the threat of Russian bombs.

Professor Chegel said recent public and private investment in the new generation of academics had helped science advance significantly in Ukraine in the year prior to Russia's invasion.

"War stopped this process," he said.

University and research institutions have been destroyed in several eastern cities and damage to the national grid has meant places across the country are facing a winter of ongoing power outages.

Professor Chegel has been unable to communicate with his brother and colleagues in the Russian controlled Luhansk region for some time.

"It completely stops. I don't know how my brother is."

The Australian Academy of Science is hoping to play a part in helping Ukrainian academics return to some semblance of normalcy, through the establishment of research collaborations between the two countries.

Through a donation from the non-profit Breakthrough Prize Foundation, the Academy will look to facilitate short-term visits to Australian research facilities and access to world-class equipment.

The initiative is part of a global movement to support Ukrainian scientists and will complement work underway in several countries including the United States, Poland and Denmark, who have already received scientists who have fled the country.

President Professor Chennupati Jagadish said the beauty of science was that there were no national boundaries.

"It's a global activity," Professor Jagadish said. "Our hope is that we'll be able to seed some visits of the early and mid-career researchers to Australia to initiate some collaborations which will be long lasting and mutually benefiting."

With men aged 18 to 60 banned from leaving the country without obtaining permission, Professor Jagadish said the Academy would also support scientists in Ukraine by measuring the data of those unable to travel using Australian infrastructure.

"We'll be able to send the data back to them, so they can analyse the data and write their papers," he said.

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Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Mysoshnychenko said he was a perfect case study for the benefits of exchange programs, having received a US scholarship in high school and a British scholarship while studying his masters.

Mr Mysoshnychenko said he hoped to see more collaborations between Australian and Ukrainian institutions which would be pivotal in ensuring Ukraine was in a position to rebuild when the war is over.

"People who come here are going to leverage from those contacts and that experience when they go back and they will serve as the bridge that will connect Australia to Ukraine," he said.

"That will be crucial."

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