Ukraine military trains its civilians on how to defend themselves if the country is invaded by Russia

The Ukraine Military has started training its civilians on how to defend the territorial integrity of their nation in the event of a Russian invasion.

Dozens of civilians have been joining Ukraine’s army reserves in recent months, as fears have mounted that Russia who have amassed around 100,000 troops on its side of the border is plotting to launch a large-scale attack.

The Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces, the name given to the military reserve of the Ukrainian Armed Forces held training exercises on Tuesday, December 28.

During the training which occured at a forested area just outside Ukraine’s capital Kiev, mock Russian troops ambush camouflage-clad army reservists.

The would-be Ukrainian soldiers, who include architects and researchers in their ranks, return fire with replica Kalashnikovs as imitation smoke grenades explode around them.

“I believe that every person in this country should know what to do… if the enemy invades their country,” Daniil Larin, a 19-year-old university student, told AFP .

According to AFP, Larin is one of about 50 Ukrainian civilians who drove from Kiev to an abandoned Soviet-era asphalt plant to train 

The Ukrainian reservists almost 100,000 in number , have been learning “how to handle weapons, how to behave in a battle environment, how to defend cities,” Larin told AFP. 

Also photos uploaded on social media show civilians holding wooden replicas of Kalashnikov rifles, as they take part in a military exercise .

Marta Yuzkiv, a 51-year-old doctor, believes that the Russian army is “far superior” to Ukraine’s and the risk of a full-scale invasion is “high enough” to have joined the reserves.

“Only if everyone is ready to defend our land, then there will be a chance,” she said.

Since joining up in April, when Russia  deployed around 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s border, Yuzkiv has trained for several hours every Saturday in providing tactical medicine, shooting automatic rifles and deploying checkpoints.

 

Ukraine’s army, which totals 215,000 soldiers, has been battling a Moscow-backed insurgency in two breakaway regions since 2014 in a long-simmering conflict that has claimed over 13,000 lives.

 

While Russia has denied it is planning an invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not excluded a military response should the US-led NATO alliance which Ukraine wants to join expand eastward.