- Title: In Ukraine conflict, even the elderly are getting ready to fight
- Date: 20th February 2022
- Summary: VARIOUS OF 79-YEAR-OLD VOLUNTEER AND ACTIVIST, VALENTYNA KOSTANTYNOVSKA, RECEIVING MEDAL (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) 79-YEAR-OLD VOLUNTEER AND ACTIVIST, VALENTYNA KOSTANTYNOVSKA, SAYING: ''Then (at the training recently) I saw my dream: an automatic gun. I ran there from in-between all the youngsters, did the same exercises as them, to load, I did everything there. Then I thought: why, if I take an automatic gun into my hands, come on, I should be able to, then I lay down, and started to train.'' KOSTANTYNOVSKA HOLDING MEDAL (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) 79-YEAR-OLD VOLUNTEER AND ACTIVIST, VALENTYNA KOSTANTYNOVSKA, SAYING: ''I can't do much, but if there will be a wounded person, I will throw myself there and help, because I will know exactly what to do to help, in what position he should be, how to stop the blood flow.'' KOSTANTYNOVSKA TALKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) 79-YEAR-OLD VOLUNTEER AND ACTIVIST, VALENTYNA KOSTANTYNOVSKA, SAYING: ''I need as few young people as possible to die. That's why I'll be there. I will shoot if the automatic gun will lie next to him. I will help him and kill the enemy.'' VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LAYING FLOWERS ON MONUMENT (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) BISHOP OF DONETSK AND MARIUPOL ORTHODOX CHURCH OF UKRAINE, SERGIY GOROBTSSOV, SAYING: ''We are living at war since 2014. But we believe that God is with us, and if God is with us, we do not fear anyone. We are on our homeland, we defend our birthplace, our fatherland, and we will defend it to the last drop of our blood.'' (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) PENSIONER WHO VOLUNTEERED TO FIGHT IN 2014, DMYTRO BELLYKOV, SAYING: ''Honestly, I will go tomorrow to the sign-up office (army). Because I need to revive and clean up my old connections so that they don't forget about me. I might sign up for the territorial defence units.'' VARIOUS OF MASS IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CHAPLAIN, PRIEST OF ORTHODOX CHURCH OF UKRAINE, VOLODYMYR KOSKIN, SAYING: ''We went together with my wife to a 4-day course of war field medicine. On these courses, we learned how to change bandages, how to sew wounds, how to set a tracheal incision.'' VARIOUS OF CHILDREN PLAYING ON THE BEACH VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING ON BRIDGE VIEW OF SEA
- Embargoed: 6th March 2022 16:08
- Keywords: NATO Putin Ukraine-Russia tensions separatists
- Location: MARIUPOL, UKRAINE
- City: MARIUPOL, UKRAINE
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA002FZHAXC7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Elderly men and women, some well past retirement age, are getting ready to fight on either side of the separatist conflict in Ukraine as tensions ratchet higher by the day.
Fighting between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian army has been dragging on for eight years but an increase in shelling in recent days has deepened Western fears that Russia could use the conflict as a pretext to invade Ukraine - an accusation that Moscow denies.
In the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, less than 20 km (12.5 miles) from the nearest trenches, grizzled pensioners are among those coming forward to volunteer for Territorial Defense units where they receive basic weapons and first aid training.
Ukraine's most celebrated volunteer is Valentyna Kostyantynovska, 79, who came to prominence after she was filmed at a training ground handling a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
She said she had wanted to learn how to shoot ever since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. At the start of this year, she joined the Territorial Defence Forces and started training as a medic.
"Then I saw my dream: an automatic gun ... and started to train," she told Reuters in Mariupol on Sunday (February 20) following a ceremony honouring her.
"I can't do much, but if there will be a wounded person, I will throw myself there and help," Kostyantynovska said and added she knew they will kill her. ''I need as few young people as possible to die. That's why I'll be there," she said.
Dmytro Bellykov, a pensioner in his 60s who first volunteered when the conflict broke out in 2014, said he would make his way to the recruitment center on Monday (February 21).
"I need to revive and clean up my old connections so that they don't forget about me," he said. He added he was not a bad marksman and knew how to repair weapons.
The focus of tensions in recent days has been on the swathe of eastern Ukraine that Russian-backed rebels seized in 2014, the same year Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. More than 14,000 people have been killed in the conflict in the east.
Two Ukrainian soldiers were reported killed and four wounded on Saturday (February 19).
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire in the eastern part of the country.
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