Ukrainian men take crash course in fighting Russian invasion
LVIV: Before Russia launched its assault on Ukraine, Andriy Senkiv was a Ukrainian pacifist who blogged about sport and had never held a gun in his life.
Eleven days later, the 27-year-old Ukrainian was learning how to handle an assault rifle with 30 other men in the western city of Lviv. Among them were salesmen, IT experts, a chef and a footballer.
“It’s very scary that, in the 21st century, skills that should have died out a long time ago are again in high demand,” said Senkiv.
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Moscow calls the campaign it started on February 24 a “special militray operation” and says it has no plans to occupy Ukraine, which is seeking membership of NATO and the European Union.
Asked if he was ready to fight and kill Russian soldiers, Senkiv said; “I won’t be ready, but I’ll do it.”
The training took place in the western city of Lviv, in a former Russian cultural centre that used to screen propaganda movies during the Soviet era.
Today, the building is known as Warrior House, its walls hung with portraits of Ukrainian soldiers who fought Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbass region in 2014.
Dennis Kohut, the trainer, fought in Donbass and is now a firefighter.
He began by laying three assault rifles on the table and explaining how they worked. He was about to cram weeks of basic training into a single Sunday.
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“If even 10 men in this room pick a gun and shoot Russian soldiers, then the training will be worth it,” he told Reuters.
Raising his rifle, Kohut showed the volunteers how to stand correctly, “Your equipmnet is really heavy and you might fall when you start shooting,” he said.
“It’s our land and we have to protect it,” he said.
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