Ukrainian civilians train amid growing Russian invasion fears

Dmytro Dubas thought his war was over. Now the US is warning of an all-out Russian invasion of Ukraine and the veteran volunteer fighter can’t ignore it.

“Last week I was pretty disturbed; I even went to my psychologist for help,” he admits.

For months, Ukraine’s Western allies have been pointing to Russian troops massing on the border. That’s prompted military analysts abroad to produce endless maps covered in arrows that confidently predict how Vladimir Putin’s troops will advance on Kyiv.

Ukrainians who’d be in the direct line of any such incursion are far less convinced it will happen.

But all the war talk is unsettling.

“Russia can always transfer troops to the border in a matter of days and then invade, so this build-up is nothing different,” Dmytro argues, in his Kyiv flat.

In 2014, then working in sales, he joined the flood of volunteer soldiers pouring east when heavy fighting against Russian-backed forces erupted. There’s been a formal ceasefire in place since 2015 but it breaks down regularly and the threat of a sudden escalation in the violence is ever-present.

But Dmytro had returned to civilian life, storing the reminders of his time in the trenches in an old ammunition box painted and re-fashioned as a coffee table in his living room.

Now he’s calmed his nerves by preparing for the worst possible scenario: filling his car with fuel, buying emergency food supplies, and signing up with the territorial defense force to brush up his skills.

Western intelligence agencies have ascribed all sorts of plans to Vladimir Putin, including besieging Kyiv. Ukrainian officials from President Volodymyr Zelensky down have batted back that idea, wary of spreading panic.

At the same time, city schools are practicing bomb scare or air raid drills, social media is full of official guides to preparing an emergency “grab bag” for evacuation and people have begun plotting their escape route which mostly involves driving west as fast as they can.