Women living in Ukraine learn to use Kalashnikov assault rifles as part of an urban combat training program, preparing for a potential offensive by Russia.
MORE: Down at a shooting range in Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, six women are learning how to use Kalashnikov assault rifles as part of an urban combat training program.
Crouching down behind makeshift walls, one takes aim at a target in the distance, before scurrying over to another position. Most are young and many are dressed in olive-green fatigues.
It's their third session at "The Sixth Sense", a security training center in the city where a team of experts has just set up the scheme teaching women gun skills and urban combat tactics.
With the fighting edging ever closer to the city, 47-year-old Natalia Basova says she didn't think twice about signing up. For her, the front line is just too close.
"I knew how to use weapons before the war. I used to visit shooting ranges, I was very interested," says Basova, who is taking the course with her 29-year-old daughter Ulyana Kiyashko.
"But now everyone needs to know about it," she says, wincing at the loud crack of a gunshot behind her.
(AFP/VOA)
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