Having recently visited Ukraine for the first time in five years to introduce her newborn baby to her parents, attacks from Russian forces formed the soundtrack to much of daily life.
"Air-raid sirens were on every single day with the exception of one hour a day. I heard ballistic missiles explode over my head. That was probably the scariest moment of my life," she told AAP.
"My hands were shaking. I didn't know where to go. There are not enough bomb shelters.
"Now the drone attacks are only increasing in frequency. Before we would have 10, 20, maybe 30 drone attacks a night, just last night there were 256 drones that attacked Ukraine."
As memorials were held to mark the third anniversary of the war on Monday, Ms Argyrou, who is also the co-chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, said there was still large levels of distress and concern in the community.
She said those feelings had intensified in recent days following comments by US President Donald Trump where he described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a dictator.
"It's extremely concerning to hear things like saying that Ukraine started this war ... my entire family is in Ukraine. I know exactly who started this war," she said.
"I remember when my parents called me up and they heard explosions, when all of Ukraine was being bombed at four and five o'clock in the morning on exactly three years ago today.
"I remember when my cousins called me and they said they had absolutely nothing to defend themselves with, except for Molotov cocktails, and they were going up against Russian tanks."
Diplomats, Australian officials and the Ukrainian community attended a memorial service at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canberra, with similar services taking place in other cities.
Australia slapped further travel bans and sanctions on Russian individuals and entities to coincide with the invasion's anniversary.
In a joint statement, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced on Monday the government was imposing an extra 149 sanctions.
This brings the total number of sanctions to more than 1400 in response to Russia starting the war on February 24, 2022.
"Once again, Australia calls on Russia to immediately end its war and adhere fully to its obligations under international law, including in relation to the protection of civilians and treatment of prisoners of war," the statement reads.
Australia has committed more than $1.5 billion in aid to Ukraine.
Ukraine's top diplomat in Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko thanked Australia for its "uplifting" support.
"We need Europe, and we need America standing there, together with us and negotiating with Russia from a standpoint of strength," he said.
"My most important message is to express my gratitude to the Australian people, to the Australian government."
The ambassador was with his family in Kyiv when Russian paratroopers started landing just 20 minutes from his home, a moment he said he would never forget.
He praised the "stellar" leadership of Mr Zelenskiy who said he would step down from the presidency if it meant securing peace for his country.
Peter Dutton, opposition foreign spokesman David Coleman and opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said the coalition stood with Ukraine, and for an end that fully respected its sovereignty.
"A peace that does not reward the murderous despot Putin, as any reward would embolden other autocrats to follow in his tyrannical footsteps," they said.
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