Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen has revealed he has "immediate family" that have been forced to flee Ukraine due to Russia's invasion.
Pietersen said his relatives have fled to the Polish capital Warsaw and thanked Poland for the "love" they have given to those displaced by the invasion.
In a post on Twitter, Pietersen wrote: "I can just tell you that Poland has been incredible to fleeing Ukrainians. From the border to the city of Warsaw.
"I've had immediate family that have just escaped & they say that the love they've received in Poland is beyond anything they've ever experienced."
Pietersen's wife Jessica also tweeted, thanking Poland for the "welcome and kindness you've shown to our family".
She wrote: "To the people of @Poland we can never thank you enough for the welcome and kindness you've shown to our family."
Thousands of people have fled Ukraine to escape the war, with major cities like Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv coming under fire from Russian troops.
The United Nations state that more than half a million Ukrainians have already fled to neighbouring countries like Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to fly out to Poland and Estonia on Tuesday for crisis talks with allies and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
The invasion is into its fifth day and the UK's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has warned things will only get "more violent".
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he said: "[ Russia ] are behind schedule, they are taking significant casualties and they are feeling public rejection in parts of the Russian system itself; we've seen many protests.
"But the Russian handbook is to then get more violent and commit more forces because fundamentally in the Russian, sort of, doctrine the lives of their own soldiers matter much less than in other armed forces.
"So we have to brace ourselves for what may come next, which could be ruthless, indiscriminate bombing of cities and propelling forward of soldiers and high casualty levels, and that's going to be horrific."
