Police say they have no forensic evidence and are relying on a tip-off to solve the crime after CCTV footage failed to reveal any clues.

Meanwhile, cemetery management has strengthened security at night to prevent another attack like the one that occurred between 9pm on Tuesday and 6am on Wednesday.

Auburn police crime manager Paul Arnold said police suspected multiple offenders were behind the "senseless act of vandalism" in which headstones were pulled over and smashed.

"It's horrendous," Deputy Inspector Arnold said. "People have laid their loved ones to rest for an eternity and this is what happens."

Many of the desecrated graves were in the Russian Orthodox and Serbian Orthodox sections of the cemetery. But the vandals attacked roughly the same number of graves in two other non-denominational sections, moving through the grounds in a line.

Police said there was no evidence to suggest the crime was motivated by racial or religious hatred.

But the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations labelled the attack a hate crime, calling for an investigation "at the highest levels".

The vandalism came a day before Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko arrived on a two-day tour of Australia, in which he was set to attend a memorial service  for victims of flight MH17, shot down by Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine.

Fiona Heslop, the chief executive of the Rookwood General Cemetery Reserve Trust, said security officers would patrol the grounds on foot for several months to deter copycat attacks.

Julie Rusten, who runs tours around the cemetery to raise money for restoration projects with the Friends of Rookwood group, said she was "filled with disgust and despair".

"Whenever there's any kind of vandalism, I feel like grabbing these people by the shirt and saying, 'What if it was your family, what if it was your grandmother's grave?"