At their small shop in the Town of Mount Royal (TMR) near Montreal, Lyudmila Peregudova and her husband Oleg Peregudov are busy sewing Ukrainian flags as they think of their family in constant danger.

Every stitch is a painful reminder of the devastation happening back home.

“It's very hard," said Atellier Chic owner Peregudov, whose sister and 85-year-old mother live in Mariupol.

For days, he couldn't reach them as news reports of bombs hitting the city came in.

He found out recently that they are still alive but struggling.

"They don't have electricity or water and very little communication," he said.

The couple is worried sick and hasn't been sleeping well.

They are helped by the encouragement they get from clients, who saw the colours of Ukraine in the shop and started asking for flags and scarves.

The couple started making them for free.

Clients bring the material and they so the flags.

"It's a way to show moral support," said Peregudova, adding that she hopes it will also send a message to NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

"Every five minutes, bombs are going off," she said. "It's crazy. It needs to stop."