Thousands of Ukrainians and foreigners, including Bangladeshis, in Kyiv are moving to the Polish and Romanian borders for safety after Russian troops began strikes against Ukraine early today.

The petrol pumps are witnessing long queues of cars in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, as they would need to drive about eight hours to reach the western borders of the country, said Bangladeshi expatriates from Kyiv today.

"We are in a long queue at a petrol pump. We will move to the western areas bordering Poland. We have all the documents with us to get Polish visas," Mofizur Rahman, a Bangladeshi student from Kyiv, told this correspondent around 1:30pm today.

He said there is no clash in Kyiv but people were in a rush to move to safe zones, despite the government order that the citizens should not move from one city to another under the state of emergency.

Palash Ahmed, a Bangladeshi businessman from Kyiv, said he and some of his friends were also preparing to move to the border areas.

"The Ukrainian forces have the capacity to resist the Russian forces at the borders. So, I don't think there would be an all-out war, but there is panic among people," he said.

He said he has no definite information if any Bangladeshi has already moved to the western borders of Ukraine, but many like him were preparing.