Australian shoppers have urged Coles and Woolworths to change the name of their chicken Kiev to Kyiv in recognition of an independent Ukraine.

The Ukrainian capital was known as Kiev (pronounced key-ev) under Soviet rule but Ukrainians call the city Kyiv (pronounced kee-yeev).

'Hey Coles, I know it's not much but could you please rename your products to chicken Kyiv in solidarity with Ukraine,' one customer wrote.

'So it's now chicken Kyiv, can someone tell Woolies and Coles,' another added. 

'What better time to change the name of these,' a third added.

Coles said it 'doesn't intend to make any changes to product names at this point', with the cost being too expensive.

Woolworths has been contacted for comment.

The dish became widely popular in Western countries in the 1970s and was even served at a May 1990 dinner at the Soviet embassy in Washington DC to then leader Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet Union collapsed.

But the origin of the dish, and therefore whether it should be called chicken Kiev, with the Russian name, or Kyiv, with the Ukrainian spelling, is disputed.

Russians claim it was invented in the Muscovy region of the old Russian Empire, while some Ukrainians chefs insist they have the only authentic recipe due to small tweaks made by a chef in Kyiv.

However, the origin can be traced back to France in the 1800s.

Viacheslav Gribov, who worked as head chef for Kyiv's Hotel Dnipro, said Russian royalty sent chefs to Paris to learn from the best in the 1840s and they returned with a recipe called Mikhailovska cutlet.

'The dish was made in Paris with veal but in Moscow, it was made with chicken. At that time, chicken was more expensive and considered more of a delicacy,' Gribov told US National Public Radio.

Originally served only in high-end dining rooms such as the Merchant Club in Russia, the dish eventually became more common appearing in the Russian Tea Room in New York in the 1950s to cater for new immigrants where the name 'Chicken Kiev' was coined.

Gribov claimed Ukrainian chefs then perfected the modern day recipe - which does not include garlic or cheese, has a bone sticking out to stop the butter leaking, and, if done properly, some of the butter remains un-melted.

'This began as a dish for dignitaries meeting one another.

You would never serve them garlic,' he said.

'We don't just learn how to make the dish; we also learn a special way of serving and cutting it to avoid butter splashing out.'

Other Ukrainian oral traditions claim the Continental Hotel in central Kyiv invented the modern version of the dish in the early 20th Century.

The name Kyiv for the Ukrainian capital city itself stems from recognition of Ukraine's independence in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The name did not gain widespread recognition until after the Maidan Revolution of 2014 in which pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych, widely accused of being corrupt, was ousted and the country sought closer ties with the West.

As Ukrainians defend themselves from a Russian invasion, Ukrainian language teacher Andrii Smytsniuk of Cambridge University said the name carries a lot of meaning.

'Many Ukrainians see this as a sign of respect for their language and identity,' Mr Smytsniuk told The Guardian.

'I think it's right to pronounce it 'Kyiv' - as close to the Ukrainian as possible,' he said.

The Ukrainian government even launched an awareness campaign four years ago and there is a Twitter hashtag #KyivNotKiev. 

Amid Putin's unprovoked aggression companies are seeing increased pressure to distance themselves from Russia.

Big brands including Apple, Google, Ford and Harley-Davidson on Tuesday stopped sales in the country joining a growing list of businesses.  

This, along with heavy economic sanctions from western governments and major commodity players such as BP and Shell withdrawing from Russian deals, has already caused the country's share market to tank and PTS Terbaik ASEAN the value of the Russian ruble to plunge.