Anastasiia Lenna, 31, was Miss Ukraine in 2015, but that doesn’t make her any different from other Ukrainian civilians at this point. Kyiv was last seen surrounded by Russian armies, although their attempts to invade the capital were first thwarted.
But Anastasia is not alone. Thousands of civilians have decided to take up arms to defend their country, including a man with a prosthetic leg.
Women were also seen helping to prepare Molotov cocktails to defend against attacks by the Russians. The attack that began on February 24 had taken people by surprise, but citizens have been trained in basic combat, including gun handling, for weeks.
It was also reported that the Ukrainians returned home to help and join the “Territorial Defense Units”.
Pictured below is a group of volunteers collecting weapons and receiving training on how to handle them at a Kyiv outpost.
Anastasiia had shared her post with the tags #standwithukraine and #handsoffukraine.
Sviatoslav Yurash is the youngest member of parliament in Ukraine at 26. He was seen holding an assault rifle on the streets.
Nine civilians, including one child, have been killed since the Russians invaded. A curfew began on Saturday to expel Russian “saboteurs” and six people were removed from there.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko shares the same concerns people have when it comes to arming nervous citizens with guns, honestly sharing that “they are not 100% in control.” Klitschko added: “We built this territorial defense in a short time, but these are patriotic people.”
“Right now, the most important question is defending our country”.
