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“Please don’t film for security reasons because it could be used by the enemy to attack our block post,” says a soldier at a roadblock.

“There are more people who want to serve than [can]... We have received weapons, but these are not enough weapons to defend local territories,” said the soldier, who worked as a lawyer before the Russian invasion. His men, too, are civilians who have taken up arms.

Those fleeing the capital are traumatised, forced to leave everything behind.

“There is no discrimination against Russians here, despite what Putin says – not on the basis of nationality, language or race. I’m half Russian and half Armenian and now the Russians want to kill me just because I love Ukraine, my homeland,” said one woman fleeing the capital, in tears.