A Kiwi based in Ukraine feels safe amid the ongoing uncertainty about whether Russia will invade the eastern European country.
The United States said on Sunday (local time) that Russia could invade Ukraine "any day now" and might create a surprise pretext for an attack.
Moscow denies any such plans and has called comments "hysteria", but no breakthrough that could ease the crisis has yet emerged from high-level talks between top Russian and Western officials in recent days.
Kiwi Michael Devoe, who is based in Kyiv, told AM on Monday that the situation is "tense" but no one is panicking.
"It's a tense situation and the New Zealand embassy got in touch at the end of the week, called and said they changed their policy to leaving," he said.
"We can't just run from one day to the next, but it's something we are thinking about but for now, we are here [Kyiv].
"We feel safe, the feeling on the streets, and everywhere you go like the shops, it's quite calm there isn't really any panic. No one is panic buying, there is enough toilet paper at the shops, enough petrol at the petrol station."
Even with the "tense" situation and the threat of Russian invading "any day now", Devoe doesn't believe there is a divide in the country.
"I don't think it divides people, of course, there are some divided people maybe you could say loyalties, but there is still a lot of family friend relationships between people in Ukraine and people in Russia," Devoe told AM.
"Russia is the second-largest ethnic group in Ukraine, a lot of people speak Russian in their normal day-to-day language here including my own children but Ukrainian is the official language but there is not really a divide.
"I guess what happened in 2014 probably united Ukrainians - Russian or Ukrainian speaking - together more than anything else."
Devoe told AM the current situation has a different feel to the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and thinks Ukraine is much better prepared.
"I think this is a bit different. I think I said at the time, Ukraine was a fairly weak state and that has changed dramatically over the last eight years," he said.
"I think that changes the position with respect to Russia and of course, Crimea already had its military base there and that made it easier for them."
