Ukraine is tense but people are ready to resist Russia

At least one-third of Ukrainians, according to recent polling, are ready to take up arms and resist a Russian invasion by force. And this isn’t bluster. After almost eight years of conflict, Ukrainians harbor no naive or romantic impressions about what war is.

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When Russia invaded the Donbas in 2014, Ukraine’s regular armed forces could muster only a few thousand combat-ready soldiers. With the country facing an existential threat, Ukrainian civil society launched a grassroots war effort, forming a coalition of civilian volunteer battalions. These units are made up of men and women, young and old, often with little or no military experience, including both native Russian and Ukrainian speakers from all regions of the country. Many of these volunteers learned how to be soldiers while in combat — a baptism by fire they refer to as “natural selection” boot camp.

This grassroots effort reversed Russia’s unconventional invasion of the Donbas and fought the war to a stalemate, which persists to this day. Now, amid the threat of a bigger war, we see again that spirit of resistance from Ukrainian society.

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