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The Atlantic
Photos: Ukrainians Prepare for War
By Alan Taylor,
2022-02-17
With thousands of Russian troops gathered along its borders, and after nearly eight years of skirmishes with Russian-backed separatists, Ukrainian soldiers and civilians find themselves preparing for a possible full-scale invasion. People are taking courses in self-defense, field medicine, and military tactics to defend their homes, while soldiers train and continue to defend the front lines in eastern Ukraine, where a long-simmering standoff with separatists has left thousands dead. Gathered below are images from the city of Kyiv and several villages over the past several weeks, where people are readying themselves for the worst.
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Ukrainian reservist officers hold training sessions for civilians amid an escalation of tensions in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 6, 2022. # Ali Atmaca / Anadolu Agency / GettyUkrainian servicemen walk among trenches outside Donetsk, Ukraine, on February 1, 2022. # Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu Agency / GettyMembers of the 503rd Naval Infantry Battalion, stationed in Donbas, Ukraine, on January 18, 2022 # Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu Agency / GettyA volunteer with the Razom do Peremogi ("Together to Victory") association works on camouflage netting to support the Ukrainian army in Kramatorsk, near Donbas, on January 30, 2022. # Ali Atmaca / Anadolu Agency / GettyA military instructor teaches civilians holding wooden replicas of Kalashnikov rifles, as they take part in a training session at an abandoned factory in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on February 6, 2022. # Sergei Supinsky / AFP / GettyA young woman handles a weapon during a basic combat training session for civilians, organized by the far-right Azov Special Operations Detachment of Ukraine's National Guard, in Mariupol, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on February 13, 2022. # Vadim Ghirda / APCivilian participants practice combat and self-defense techniques during a class run by the Tactical Civil Defense on January 31, 2022, in Kyiv. Across Ukraine, thousands of civilians are participating in such groups as Russia continues to amass tens of thousands of troops at its border with Ukraine.A Ukrainian soldier with the 24th Brigade is photographed outside of Zolote, Ukraine, on January 27, 2022. # Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu Agency / GettyUkrainian servicemen are seen training with a BMP-2 in Ukraine's Donetsk region on February 10, 2022. # Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu Agency / GettyA soldier pets a dog as he prepares to distribute water to various trenches and bunkers using a small cart, after a drinking-water truck delivered the supply on February 11, 2022, in Donetsk. # Gaelle Girbes / GettyA destroyed village church is seen in Pisky, in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, on February 9, 2022. # Gaelle Girbes / GettyAn aerial view shows members of the Ukrainian army reserves training civilians in Kyiv on February 5, 2022. # Ali Atmaca / Anadolu Agency / GettyCivilians participate in a beginners combat-and-survival training course run by instructors from Ukraine's Territorial Defense units at a school in Obukhiv on February 6, 2022. # Chris McGrath / GettyA young woman holds a weapon during a basic combat training for civilians, organized by the far-right Azov Special Operations Detachment in Mariupol, Donetsk region, on February 13, 2022. # Vadim Ghirda / APWomen practice self-defense techniques with replica knives during a "Survival in Urban Areas" training class organized by the Ukrainian Women’s Guard on February 5, 2022, in Kyiv. # Chris McGrath / GettyA woman walks by as members of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination on ceasefire of the demarcation line (JCCC) survey a crater and damage to a house from an artillery shell that landed in the village of Vrubivka, one of at least eight that hit the village on February 17, 2022, according to local officials.A military instructor teaches civilians holding wooden replicas of rifles, as they take part in a training session at an abandoned factory in Kyiv on January 30, 2022. # Sergei Supinsky / AFP / GettyA Ukrainian soldier is seen near Svitlodarsk, in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, on February 11, 2022. # Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu Agency / GettyA Ukrainian serviceman enters a bunker at his unit's position at the contact line near the village of Svitlodarsk, on February 13, 2022. # Manu Brabo / GettyA Ukrainian serviceman moves through the ruins of an industrial compound on a front-line position outside Avdiivka, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on February 4, 2022. # Vadim Ghirda / APA Ukrainian teenager and a Pentecostal pastor reinforce the basement in a center for children who dig trenches for soldiers serving on their country's eastern front, facing off with Russian-backed separatists, in the eastern Ukraine village of Chervone, on February 11, 2022.Ukrainian teenagers dig trenches for soldiers near the village of Chervone, Mariupol region, on February 11, 2022. # Aleksey Filippov / AFP / GettyThe student Ilya Zhelnovatskiy, 16, shows his bomb shelter, which is hidden under the floor panels of his simple kitchen, in the town of Krasnohorivka on the outskirts of the Russian-backed-separatist stronghold of Donetsk, on February 6, 2022. Since 2014, Krasnohorivka has been experiencing war with the pro-Russian separatists. Despite lulls on the front, sporadic gunfire continues to trouble the small town of 15,000 inhabitants, where authorities have asked individuals, schools, and hospitals to prepare their shelters.
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A Ukrainian soldier keeps guard in a building outside Zolote, Ukraine, on February 3, 2022. # Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu Agency / GettyCivilians learn to use tourniquets during medical training in a beginners combat-and-survival training course at a school in Obukhiv on February 6, 2022. # Chris McGrath / GettyMariana Jaglo, mother of three, holds her Ukrainian Zbroyar Z-15 rifle during an interview in the kitchen of her flat in Kyiv on January 28, 2022. As fears grow of a potential invasion by Russian troops amassed on Ukraine's border, this 52-year-old army reservist insists that she is willing to fight to defend her country.Anna Vasilevna, 84, sits in her home with her dog, Doll, on February 10, 2022, in Nevelske, Ukraine. Vasilevna, who receives a pension of 100 euros a month and lives with her disabled son Serhii, 56, has lived without water, gas, electricity for eight years, has been injured three times, and has partially lost her sight. Her son and Doll, along with Doll's five puppies from a month ago, are Vasilevna's main companions. Since 2014, the United Nations estimates that 13,000 people have died in the Russian-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea.
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A member of the Georgian National Legion paramilitary volunteer unit instructs a civilian on shooting techniques during a training course at a shooting range on February 10, 2022, in Kyiv. # Chris McGrath / GettyServicemen of the Mechanized Infantry service and drive vehicles at an undisclosed location in Ukraine's Luhansk region on January 25, 2022. # Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu Agency / GettyA Ukrainian soldier looks at a screen outside of Svitlodarsk, Ukraine, on February 12, 2022. # Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu Agency / Getty
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