After seeing the tragedy play out across the news, one local man has taken it upon himself to aid the people of Ukraine

AK, as he prefers to be known, is one of thousands of foreign volunteers who have joined the struggle; however, he did not enlist as a foreign fighter.

Instead, he is using nearly 20 years of experience in healthcare to give a crash course in first aid to Ukrainians defending their homeland.

The Australian volunteer said a minor language barrier and time constraints meant the teaching wasn't necessarily comprehensive but was still likely to save lives on the battlefield.

"So we're mainly training...groups of civilians," AK said.

"Just community groups or Civil Defence teams...some police and other individuals that are just interested...in trauma measurement and shock prevention, shock treatments.

"We're really going down into the major life-saving criteria. Massive blood loss, assessing a casualty's state of consciousness and their ability to protect their own airway.

"We're teaching them to use tourniquets, which are very useful for massive bleeding.

"We're tying that in with tactical awareness."

Before he volunteered, AK worked for the Queensland Ambulance Service, assisted with emergency aeromedical retrievals and more recently worked as a Registered Nurse at regional emergency departments.

AK said he felt "morally bound" to help, and after bidding his family farewell on May 8, he journeyed to the war-torn country via Poland.

"It was the right thing to do," he said.

"I had a professional background and skill set that I thought would be applicable and useful over here, which it has been.

"I just thought I was morally bound to do something."

His mother, Deb Kirkwood, from Cedar Grove, south of Brisbane in Queensland, said although it made for a Mother's Day, she would never forget the move was characteristic of her son.

"He's always been like that," Mrs Kirkwood said.

"It doesn't matter what he wants. If someone is in need, he'll drop everything and help."

After spending a week in Poland, AK arrived in Ukraine. Among the first places he and other volunteers visited were Irpin and Bucha, towns close to Kyiv that were the sites of alleged atrocities committed by Russian troops.

"We've seen some pretty horrible things," AK said.

"One of the first things we saw was Irpin and Bucha...most Westerners would know those words now.

"When we were driving in, you could see the devastation to civilian infrastructure.

"You'd see the civilian houses that were quite deliberately targeted...it's machine-gun fire and cannon fire, it's not artillery.

"There are cars that have just been machine-gunned or run over by armoured vehicles...it was really confronting."

Despite the horrors he witnessed in the ruins of Bucha and Irpin, AK said he was happy to be there, not in the least because he had heard news that at least one person had been saved by the techniques he had taught the Ukrainian nationals.

"Before I left, I said if I knew that what we did saved one life, that's worth it," he said.

"That's worth spending everything I have and coming over here, which I kind of have, unfortunately, but knowing that person gets more time on Earth with their family is the coolest thing ever."

To fund his stay in the country, AK sold most of his possessions, and although the costs of living in Ukraine were comparatively low, his finances would ultimately decide how long he could continue to help.

"I'm obviously limited by my financial means," he said.

"My sister has kindly set up a GoFundMe, which is great, but I can't really afford to be here for the duration. So who knows how long this will take."

Funds raised by AK's family will also fund the purchase of medical supplies, which AK said initially proved hard to source, but the situation was slowly changing.

"We've got a whole mishmash of things," he said.

"When the war started, they were pulling stuff out of old Soviet stocks, so we've seen some very old dressings. I've seen ones from the 1960s, so we're getting the guys to discard those.

"There are a lot of NGOs over here, with warehouses of this sort of stuff, but one of the more frustrating things for us is having to get these supplies to the guys.

"We have had some successes in getting what's known as IFAKs - individual first aid kits - and the equipment in them to the guys."

Although he was far from the front lines, the volunteer medic said life in Ukraine was not without its dangers as Russian weapons occasionally struck nearby urban centres.

"I've told mum and dad that I'm safe, but safe with a small 's'," AK said.

"It's not safe like in Cedar Grove, but I'm fine. I've got three meals a day, and we're getting out and seeing things, but occasionally rockets drop on the city."

AK said these occasional reminders of the ongoing conflict made for a "surreal" experience, as many of the Ukrainians he had seen were trying to go about their daily lives.

"It's normal in a different sense," he said.

"It must be in the back of their minds, but people are going to work, enjoying the sunshine, going out for walks in the park. Doing things that ordinary people do.

"It's a very cosmopolitan place, and people are trying to get back to normal, but it's very tense."