Viktoria Makarova loads her rifle and takes aim at a target across the snow-covered ground, while an instructor holds her shoulder steady for the recoil.
Makarova, a construction company manager in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, is spending her weekends learning how to fire guns, practise martial arts and honing her first aid skills as the country braces for a potential war with Russia.
She has taken up a self-defence course in Ukraine's second largest city, a major industrial centre 40 kms (25 miles) from the Russian border.
