Amid fears of Russian invasion, Ukrainians train with wooden assault rifles in bizarre defence exercise

The drills in Kyiv come as Moscow tightens its military noose around Ukraine, even as it denies any intention to invade. 

Image Credit: Getty Images

As Russia continues to mount pressure with accumulating over 100,000 troops equipped with weapons, tanks and missiles along Ukraine's border, Ukrainians are gearing up to protect their land from a possible invasion.

Moscow's troop movement comes eight years after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and backed a bloody rebellion in the eastern Donbas region.

Volunteer Army unit members in Kyiv were pictured recently training with fake wooden guns, even as top US Army officials claim Russia's accumulation of forces along Ukraine's border is the biggest since the Cold War.

Over the weekend, members of Ukraine's Territorial Defence Forces were pictured wielding the cut-out props in unusual training drills as dozens of civilians, who could be under the direct command of the Ukrainian military, continue to receive basic combat training.

The training brought together close to 70 Ukrainian civilians, some in full infantry gear with hunting rifles and others in casual sportswear, who were handed mock wooden rifles to attain military training. According to reports, some of the locals had had combat experience when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

"People in the big cities got used to the fact that the conflict was far away from them," 40-year-old instructor Sergiy Vyshnevsky told AFP. "Now they realise that the war might come to them," he added.

The drills in the Kyiv come as Moscow tightens its military noose around Ukraine, even as it denies any intention to invade. 

In contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin's arsenal of weapons boasts devastating manpower and potential danger, forcing Ukrainian officials to acknowledge the country has little chance to fend off a full Russian invasion.

Meanwhile, Putin has also accused the United States of drawing his nation into a war in Ukraine. He added that America's goal was to use a confrontation as a pretext to impose more sanctions on Moscow.

The Russian President also said Washington was ignoring Moscow's concerns about expanding NATO, the Western military alliance that Ukraine is seeking to join.