Ukraine: Air raid sirens blare out as explosions rock Kyiv, where a mass exodus is underway

We had all been prepared for this but hadn't really expected it. It just didn't seem to add up, I suppose.

We had been told that an invasion of Ukraine by Russia was possible, but it had seemed fantastical.

A crazy move. An invasion of a European nation after years of posturing.

But here we are.

It started before dawn, but I didn't hear the first distant explosion, I was fast asleep. The rest of my team most certainly did though.

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We made our way outside as Ukrainians started waking to massive explosions around the capital Kyiv - it was the same across the country.

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As we walked up the hill towards a beautiful church and viewpoint that was to be our live location for the next few hours, we saw people coming out of their homes, gazing in disbelief at what was happening.

It's fair to say explicit warnings that this invasion would happen had probably been taken with a pinch of salt by the local population.

Over the past few weeks many had told us that nothing would happen, that it was all a bluff by Russia - a bluff that Russia had played many times since this conflict first began in 2014 with a separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine.

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Despite the explosions and flashes in the sky, we could see commuters making their way into the capital as normal, across bridges and on motorways.

It was surreal. But it wasn't normal, and within hours that traffic had stopped.

People were suddenly aware of the magnitude of what was happening as air raid sirens blared out across the city.

Officials here said they were just testing the sirens, but nobody believed them.

Above the clouds a fighter jet soared over our heads - we couldn't see, so Russian or Ukrainian we don't know which. But the engines were deafeningly loud and unnerving.

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Streets usually busy with people became suddenly thinned out and quiet, not deserted but fundamentally different to just 24 hours earlier when breakfast cafes, bars and restaurants were open and teeming with people.

You would not have known the war was about to start.

Within hours of the explosions that rocked the city at dawn, it started to become clear a mass exodus was underway.

One man and family told us they tried to get onto a train heading west but that he was giving up and going home. "Without a car you're stuck," he told me.

The main roads heading out of Kyiv towards the west were jammed with traffic.

Miles and miles of queues.

People were getting out of their cars, trying to work out just how long the queue was. Others got out of buses for a break before carrying on.

We met two women who said they and everyone on the buses were heading to the west of the country and maybe then on to Poland hoping to find safety.

Nobody knows what the next few hours, let alone days, will bring here.

In a trendy district of Kyiv young men carrying flags, one with a huge flag attached to his bicycle, took the streets in an effort to support the nation and bolster morale.

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They carried the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag with pride.

But in the face of the Russian army and this invasion, there's really not much more that they can do.

Read more on the Ukraine crisis - click here for live updates and analysis.