Ukraine conflict spurs some Russians to seek Kalashnikov training

KRASNOGORSK, December 6 (Reuters) - On Saturday, 70 women and men gathered in a sports club just outside Moscow run by a former Russian special forces captain to train with automatic rifles, many of them seeking military skills due to the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine.

The United States and its Western allies have condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a devastating post-imperial land grab, but some Russians see what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation" differently.

President Vladimir Putin portrays the conflict as a watershed moment in which Russia finally stood up to arrogant Western hegemony after decades of humiliation since the Soviet Union's demise in 1991.

Putin claims that Russia is defending Russians in Ukraine against a decadent West that wants to divide Russia's vast resources and eradicate Russian civilisation. The West denies the existence of such a plot.
Some Russians are so patriotic that civilians like 31-year-old Vladimir are seeking free urban warfare training from Ilya Shadrikov, a former captain in the Federal Security Service's (FSB) elite special forces Directorate "A."

"We're doing urban military training, which could be a very useful skill for us civilians who haven't served in the army if we need to defend our homes or if we need to be sent to the front to defend our motherland," Vladimir said after 45 minutes of training with Kalashnikov.

Credit: reuters