From the military to the civilians in Ukraine, everyone is preparing for what seems to be an inevitable invasion by Russia. Recently, the Ukrainian government said they are removing data to keep it from falling into the hands of Russian forces in case of an invasion.

“We can move to new locations, we can save data and we can delete data and prevent capturing all this data even if Russian forces take control of the government’s offices. If Russia seizes government passwords during its invasion, Ukrainian agencies’ cyber teams have orders to quickly cut off access to these compromised accounts,” Victor Zhora, the Deputy Chief of Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection, said as reported by Politico.com.

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There has been a firm military response to the Kremlin’s troops marching into Ukraine. At the same time, Ukrainians are also preparing themselves for a possible war.

Preparing for the worst

People are packing emergency bags as they prepare for the worst situations. In Odessa, Jewish leaders are hiring security guards, scoping out bomb shelters, and making plans to evacuate if Russia invades the country.

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Anna Velichko, a 39-year-old pensioner who lives in a flat close to the conflict-ridden Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, had held on to her home through some of the fiercest months of the war in 2014-2015. But now she is packing her emergency evacuation bag and getting ready to run.

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In the village of Krasnohorivka on the outskirts of Donetsk, Ilya Zhelnovatskiy has scoped out a bomb shelter, which is hidden under the floor panels of his simple kitchen. Amid tensions, sporadic gunfire continues to trouble the 15,000 inhabitants. In the village, authorities have asked individuals, schools, and hospitals to prepare their shelters.

Children get war tips

After Russia ordered troops into eastern Ukraine, parents in the country are taking heart-breaking measures to help their children in the worst-case scenario. They are sending their children to school wearing stickers that identify their blood type in case of a bombing or attack.

A mother of three daughters living in Kyiv says she just learned about the stickers on February 21. "I don't have any stickers yet," she said after two days. "But I had a very deep talk with my older daughter because, sometimes, she comes home from school by herself,” she added. She has told her eldest daughter, who is 13, to listen to her teacher and they’ve gone over "guides for teenagers in emergencies."

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Schools are also preparing children for the possibility of war. In one of the schools in Kyiv, the police demonstrated bombs and shells to children. An evacuation was also performed by the children to prepare for emergencies.

In other parts of Kyiv, the Ukrainian military held training days, where civilians of all ages were given expert tips from experienced weapons instructors. Some civilians were shown how to use live weapons and others were taught with wooden replicas and trained on how to hold Russian Kalashnikov rifles in case they need to use the real thing, The Sun reported.

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Combat training

Combat training programmes are being arranged all across Ukraine to prepare civilians willing to put up a fight in case of a war. At a school in Obukhiv, a beginner’s combat-and-survival course was held for civilians by Ukraine's Territorial Defence units. Military instructors taught them how to hold wooden replicas of rifles as they took part in a training session in Kyiv.

Women in cities participated in the ‘Survival in Urban Areas’ training classes organised by the Ukrainian Women’s Guard. They learned to use replica knives to defend themselves in an attack as Russia continues to amass tens of thousands of troops at its border with Ukraine.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Feb 23, 2022 6:56 PM IST