- Civilians are training for war on the outskirts of Ukraine's capital, undeterred by Russia's military might.
- The volunteer fighters are ordinary citizens, ranging from architects to bakers to dentists.
- Although it has gathered more than 100,000 troops at the Ukrainian border, Russia denies planning an attack.
From architects to bakers to dentists, ordinary Ukrainians are learning how to defend their country as best they can should the massive force of Russian troops positioned along the country's border move to invade.
Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops, as well as a significant amount of military hardware, at positions all around Ukraine.
In a major conflict, traditional Ukrainian armed forces could be overwhelmed by the Russians, possibly forcing regular civilians to take up arms to bolster the nation's combat capability.
A Ukrainian official recently told CNN "we are going to fight if something happens. Our people are ready to fight. Every window will shoot if [Russians] go [in]."
Facing the possibility of a Russian military offensive against Ukraine, civilians have been gathering on the outskirts of Kyiv to train for battle, undeterred by Russia's military might.
"We will never surrender," architect Denys Semyroh-Orlyk told The Wall Street Journal, adding, "We are using every opportunity to train. So I think Putin should be afraid of us."
Semyroh-Orlyk told the outlet that he was a "cosmopolite" before the Russian invasion and subsequent annexation of Crimea in 2014. Now, he's a platoon sergeant of the 130th Territorial Defense Battalion and head of the group Territorial Defense of the Capital, a non-governmental organization.
Civilians have been working together with reservists and others with military training, learning to handle a weapon, execute combat tactics and maneuvers, and master other necessary skills.
"Everywhere here is our land, so we have to defend it," Oleksei Ilyushan, a criminal lawyer who has been training outside Kyiv, told CBS News.
In the city of Kharkiv, which is located just 25 miles from Ukraine's border with Russia, dozens of women have been meeting weekly in an office building to learn how to fight with automatic rifles and other weapons. Other women who have finished the training make camouflage netting for frontline forces.
Kharkiv is Ukraine's second-largest city, and many fear it would be among the first cities targeted in a Russian attack.
"This city needs to be protected," Viktoria Balesina, a table tennis teacher and one of the volunteer fighters, told the Associated Press, explaining, "We need to do something, not to panic and fall on our knees. We do not want this."
Insurgencies are difficult to predict, but the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology conducted a survey in December which found that "every third respondent" of the 2,000 participants "is ready to put up armed resistance" against the Russians were they to invade, The Wall Street Journal reported.
And a Polish think tank reportedly estimated in 2018 that Ukrainians had over four million weapons in their homes, most unregistered.
Although civilians are actively training for war, they will likely not be directing any kind of militant response to a Russian invasion. Instead, they would augment existing Ukrainian forces and operate with the military.
NGOs training civilian fighters must register with the government and train people in ways approved by the Ukrainian military. And in the event of a conflict, the president would declare war with parliament's approval, and the military would mobilize and direct these volunteer defense forces accordingly.
"The trigger would not be their trigger," Gen. Victor Muzhenko, a former top commander of Ukraine's Armed Forces, told The Wall Street Journal.
But even as regular Ukrainian civilians prepare for battle, the messaging from Moscow is unclear. Russian officials deny any plans to attack Ukraine, insisting that its large military presence near Ukraine is merely for military exercises.
US military leaders have said Russia's posture feels different from past military exercises. The US has said repeatedly that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could be "imminent."
"Our Western colleagues talk about the need for de-escalation, but first of all they themselves escalate tension with rhetoric and provoke an escalation," Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said at a Security Council meeting Monday. "Talking about an impending war is provocative in itself."