The Informer: War half a world away, but there's a livestream

And if you're so interested you can even watch "everyday life" as it happens in Ukraine's capital Kyiv right here.

Aussie Matt Williams is in Kharkviv, a city in north-east Ukraine. His life now is far-removed from hometown of Kirkstall, a rural village in south-west Victoria.

"We've just woken up maybe half an hour ago via shelling," Mr Williams said on a video published mid-afternoon Australian time.

"This is the news now - we are being invaded," he said.

Ukraine's border guard agency says that the Russian military has attacked the country from neighbouring Belarus. There's footage of several Russian tanks crossing the Belarus-Ukraine border near the town of Senkivka.

With the Ukrainian capital Kyiv just 75km south of the border with Belarus, the build-up of Russian troops there for "military drills" was always viewed as a precursor to an invasion.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says sanctions placed on Russia will target individuals at the centre of "perpetrating" the Ukrainian invasion.

"I'll call it what it is: the Russian government launched a brutal invasion, unprovoked, on Ukraine and should be condemned for doing so - and Australia does," Mr Morrison said.

As the situation worsened during our Thursday afternoon, Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie declared "sanctions are just the start".

If all this is still a bit overwhelming and you're not exactly sure how it affects Australia, let the Canberra Times' Doug Dingwall help.

He explains why the military action half a world away could well have far-reaching consequences for the international order, and threaten to reverberate in our backyard. Read it here.

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