“We are ready to fight for our families.” Ukrainian civilians prepare to fight as Russian troops close in on Odesa

"Many of these guys understand that if this fight happens, this will be their last fight,” says a retired IT consultant, now weapons trainer with the Ukrainian civilian defence.

When Alex Tkachev retired from his career as an IT consultant in 2013, he took up recreational shooting as a hobby. Now he’s standing in a parking lot near his home in Odesa, Ukraine, training a group of civilians to use Kalashnikov rifles to kill Russian soldiers.

“There are very many people who want to protect their homes, their country, their city,” Tkachev said.

Tkachev is an instructor at a military training school in Odesa, about 130 kilometres west of Mykolaiv, where Russian forces are fighting for control. Odesa is widely expected to be one of Vladimir Putin’s next targets.

On this frigid March morning, Tkachev’s students — a group of about 20 Ukrainian men ranging in age from 25 to 55 — stand hunched in the wind, their cold hands stuffed in their pockets. They take turns anchoring the butt of the rifle against their shoulder.

Asked whether a single day of firearms training will provide protection against professional Russian soldiers, Tkachev is candid.

“It’s a very difficult question,” he told Global News. “This is something that everyone should decide for himself. But I think that many of these guys understand that if this fight happens, this will be their last fight.”

One of his students is a man named Kirill, a married father of two young daughters. Fighting aged men aren’t allowed to leave Ukraine and Kirill said his wife is refusing to leave without him.

“It’s hard,” he said, his eyes welling up. “But we are ready to fight for our families. (The Russians) don’t have the same spirit we have.”