Rumia, 59, a member of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, trains close to Kyiv on Saturday
(Picture: AP)Hundreds of civilians including a grandmother have received combat training in Ukraine amid fears of an imminent Russian invasion.
Russia has sparked concern that it could be preparing for a new invasion of Ukraine as it masses more than 100,000 troops near its borders.
Men and women have been training with the Territorial Defense Forces near Kyiv as hundreds of people abandon civilian life to prepare for a possible conflict with Moscow.
Among those taking part is 59-year-old grandmother Rumia, who is from the Crimean Tartar ethnic group native to the Crimean Peninsula – which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
She was pictured brandishing a wooden rifle alongside other volunteers including children as young as 12.
Thousands of civilians have signed up to similar training programs to learn basic combat skills.
The United States has deployed 3,000 troops to Europe in response to the build-up of Russian soldiers.
Downing Street said this week that it has “high confidence” Russia is planning to fabricate a reason for launching a military attack on Ukraine.
It came as the US accused the Kremlin of an elaborate plot to fabricate a “false flag” attack by Ukrainian forces that Russia could use as a pretext to invade its neighbour.
The Pentagon claimed Russia would release a propaganda video showing staged explosions, as well as corpses and actors playing grieving mourners.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday called the fake attack claim “nonsense” and the US did not provide evidence to back it up.
However the Downing Street spokesman said: “We have high confidence Russia is planning to engineer a pretext blaming Ukraine for an attack in order to justify a Russian incursion into Ukraine.
“The details in the specific reports today are credible and extremely concerning. We’ve conducted our own analysis on this intelligence and share the US’s conclusion.
“We’re considering options for further military deployments to support Nato’s eastern flank, we’re not at the stage of setting out details yet but we will come forward with those in due course.”
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Friday for the opening of the Winter Olympic Games and talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
His visit comes amid growing Chinese support for Moscow in the dispute over Ukraine.
Mr Putin has accused the West of ignoring Russia’s security concerns and has demanded Nato remove troops from eastern Europe and agree never to accept Ukraine into the alliance.
