Ukraine’s citizen soldiers ‘the last line of defence’ against Russia

Down in the trenches around Ukraine’s capital, Alexander Tolinov aimed his Kalashnikov through a gap between sandbags.

“This is the last line of defence for Kyiv,” he said.

A manager at a telecommunications company during peacetime, but now the commander of the military post, Tolinov wore a camouflage rain poncho and Ukraine armed forces ball cap.

“We don’t want Russian soldiers here.”

There were no Russian troops out beyond the coils of silvery barbed wire and the anti-tank barriers arrayed in front of the trenchline like giant toy jacks.

President Vladimir Putin’s invasion force was suffering heavy losses and appeared to be giving up on its scheme to seize Kyiv.

But Tolinov and the others building the outpost weren’t letting down their guard.

All are members of Ukraine’s Territorial Defence Force, the newly-formed citizen soldiers branch of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Mobilized following the Russian assault, their role is to take on tasks such as operating checkpoints and patrolling cities, freeing the professional soldiers to fight.

More than 100,000 have joined since the war began. For many of them, it’s their first military experience, but some are reservists or veterans of the armed forces, Soviet army or the 2014 conflict with Russia.

The maze of six-foot-deep trenches were dug by hand and reinforced with sandbags and wooden pallets to prevent cave-ins.

“Digging is easy but retaining the sand is difficult,” Tolinov said.

Every so often along the trench, log beams offered a place to take cover during airstrikes. Green netting was draped over top to hide the trenches from surveillance drones.

(Tolinov asked Global News not to reveal the location of his position.)

Energetic and enthusiastic about his responsibilities, even in the spring rain, Tolinov said his men started each morning with running and exercises.

One member of the unit is an international martial arts champion, he said. Others run their own businesses. They have master’s degrees and PhDs, he said.

“There are a lot of people from different professions here. The common thing is we are eager to defend our country,” said a volunteer named Arkadii, who said his nickname was “Donbas.”

A member of a territorial defence mortar unit, he said his battalion included a teacher, driver, history professor, fisherman and YouTube blogger.

“Most of us just don’t want a Russian future for our kids,” said Kostya, whose army name is “Colt.” Also a mortar specialist, he said he volunteered for the territorial defence.

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Ukrainians are pro-Europe and reject Moscow’s un-democratic ways, he said. “It’s nothing close to freedom for me. And we value our freedom very much.”

While Russian forces have been described as unmotivated, the Ukrainian volunteers are defending their own neighbourhoods.

“All of us are local, we have good knowledge of the city,” Alexander Positko, a deputy battalion commander, said at his base on the edge of Kyiv.

A reservist, he served during the war in Donbas in 2014 before taking a job in the environmental office of an agricultural company. The war put him back in uniform.

He said the Ukrainians were beating the Russians in town after town around the capital. “We are defending our territory and that’s why we want to go further and liberate our city,” he said.

The territorial defence force’s contribution to stopping the Russian invasion has been crucial, said Daniel Bilak, a former Toronto lawyer serving in the outfit.

Standing near the war memorial in his town, which he asked Global News not to identify except that it was on the outskirts of Kyiv, he wore a camouflage cap and olive jacket with his battalion patch.

An armoured vehicle driven by a ponytailed soldier revved its engine in the nearby intersection, across from the church.

“Frankly, I’ve been extraordinarily impressed, and I think it’s actually been one of the key reasons that we’re winning this war,” said the Ukrainian-Canadian, looking weary after his 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. patrol.

Bilak moved to Kyiv in 1991 and was heading the Ukraine office of an international law firm when the war started. He could have flown to Canada to wait out the fighting, but he stayed to take his turn on four-hour patrols.

He is also involved in the procurement of body armour for territorial defence volunteers, and works with the Ukrainian Freedom Fund to buy non-lethal military equipment and medical kits.

“I couldn’t even imagine sitting in relative safety of western Ukraine or abroad or Canada and watching this happen, I would lose my mind,” Bilak said.

“It wasn’t a surprise for me,” he said of the Russian invasion. “I was ready for this. I’d seen it coming a couple of months beforehand.”

To prepare for a possible war with Russia, his unit began putting volunteers through basic training, with the idea they would be ready if called upon.

The town appeared largely emptied of women and children. Many of the volunteers told Global News they had sent their families to countries like Poland. Adult men are required to stay to defend Ukraine.

“Everybody who’s here is doing something to contribute,” Bilak said.

The territorial defence force marks a significant shift in Ukraine’s defence from having a standing army to the concept of “total resistance,” he said.

In a key battle north of Mykolayiv, the volunteers helped the special forces and regular army repel elite Russian troops trying to open a route to Odesa and Ukraine’s second-largest nuclear power plant in Yuzhnoukrainsk.

“It showed how powerful it can be to harness the enthusiasm of people and the commitment and resolution of people to defend their land,” said Bilak.

“For me, it was a crucial test.”

The Russian army has stalled outside Kyiv, and Ukrainian forces have been pushing them back and retaking towns they had occupied, finding evidence of possible war crimes.

Bilak was skeptical of Moscow’s claim it was withdrawing from Kyiv and said the Russians were simply trying to reposition their forces to Ukraine’s east.

But the Russian artillery and rocket fire that had become part of the soundtrack around Kyiv had quieted in recent days, Bilak said.

“Last night was the first patrol where there was no bombing, no rocket fire, nothing,” he said. “It was actually eerie to hear that kind of silence.”

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