Despite being over 4,500 miles away, a brother-sister duo is helping their fellow Ukrainians during this time of war.

Daniel Pavlotsky and his sister, Ilana, are first-generation Americans who feel a lifelong connection to Ukraine. Their parents emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1979 and 1988.

“Our first language growing up was Russian,” he said, “and our entire lives we were brought up with Russian-Ukrainian-Soviet culture — it’s hard to kind of differentiate the three because of the Soviet Union.”

Pavlotsky joined GBH’s Boston Public Radio on Wednesday to talk about his work with Boston Aide for Ukraine. He started the organization in 2014 to send aid to Ukrainians during the Maidan Revolution. Since then, the organization has continued to offer support overseas.

He was awake at night watching the UN council when the first strikes hit Ukraine this year.

“My body … anxiety filled it up,” he said.

Already armed with years of experience sending supplies abroad, he and his sister were able to send their first shipment within the first week of the conflict. Pavlotsky said they were one of the first groups to have items on the ground and boots overseas.

He said during those early weeks of the conflict, material goods were crucial because it was difficult to locally source supplies.

They started by contacting friends and extended family online to send sanitary and first aid supplies, over-the-counter medicines and clothing to a refugee center in Romania and the Medyka border near Poland. Now they are fundraising to purchase specialized goods, such as chest seals and tourniquets.

Through their relationship with DHL, a German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, they are now able to send materials overseas within three days.

Pavlotsky said he and his sister are motivated by the people they’re helping.

“Our focus has always been on ‘how do we help the little girl, the little boy, the mom, the dad, whoever it is that right now doesn't have anything – that lost everything,” said Pavlotsky. “And that’s our mission, that’s our statement, that’s why we’ve been doing this the entire time.”