Thread by @thetimes

Loud booms ring out every few minutes from the Ukrainian air defence trying to protect Kyiv. Underneath them, Dr Igor Nesteruk, considers his ill-fitting sheepskin coat

thetimes.co.uk/article/kyivs-…

“What do you think?” says Nesteruk, pivoting for a view. “Too unisex?”

The professor of applied mathematics at Ukraine’s premier research science institute was donated the coat by neighbours when he joined the Territorial Defence Forces last week

The coat is as new to Nesteruk, 67, as the Kalashnikov slung awkwardly across his body. He has admitted he “doesn’t really know” how to shoot a gun

🗣 “I lined up early and got it on the first day of the invasion. I was lucky to get it. They are in short supply now. They don’t give them any more to old men like me”

Nesteruk may be the oldest volunteer defending the streets of his Kyiv neighbourhood, Tatarka – but far from the most elderly Ukrainian civilian taking up arms in defence of the city

The Russian invasion saw Ukraine’s armouries opened up to the civilian population, men, women and teenagers, as the Territorial Defence Force, the country’s armed civilian defence against enemy penetration into its cities

The last few days have brought the full implications of the looming battle to Kyiv’s defence forces as they watch in horror the bombardment of civilian areas of Ukraine’s eastern and southern cities

Having braced themselves for a Russian bid to seize the city in the first two days of the invasion, they are now preparing for drawn out bombardment and street-to-street fighting after Moscow regroups and tries to stack up victories elsewhere before going for the capital

🗣 Mikhail, 46, originally from Kharkiv and now one of Nesteruk’s co-defenders, declares: "Kyiv is our heart, it will never fall"

👇 Read the full dispatch | ✍️ @scribblercat | 📍 Kyiv

thetimes.co.uk/article/kyivs-…