They Want to Fight for Ukraine. They Just Need Guns.

LVIV, Ukraine—While Russia’s President Vladimir Putin desperately casts around for ex-cons, mercenaries and foreign fighters to help with his stalled invasion of Ukraine, his opponents have no problem finding people ready to fight. In Ukraine, fresh waves of volunteers are joining huge lines to stock up on semi-automatic weapons to bolster the forces defending their homeland.

In western cities like Lviv, where the war has inflicted minimal casualties compared to eastern cities like Kharkiv, Mariupol and the capital city Kyiv, people have been trying to get their hands on whatever tactical gear they can.

Even if the Russian forces break through the current stalemate, there are hundreds of thousands of resistance volunteers waiting for them.

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Every day outside of Stvol, a defense gear chain store local to Ukraine and based in Odessa, a long line forms for people waiting to buy arms. The windows are shuttered with metal grates and only a few people are allowed in at a time. The line stretches around the block, with people waiting several hours or more.

Ukraine is the only country in Europe where firearms are federally regulated and citizens are permitted to own non-fully automatic rifles and shotguns. In peacetime, firearm licenses go through a lengthy local process of background checks and verification. But on Feb. 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter, “We will give weapons to anyone who wants to defend our country. Be ready to support Ukraine in the squares of our cities.”

Billboards have appeared around the country, and TV channels air segments on how to construct Molotov cocktails. As of Feb. 26, over 25,000 automatic rifles, 10 million ammunition rounds and unknown numbers of RPGs have been handed to civilians, according to Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky. The only documentation required to obtain a weapon is an ID card.

In the first days of the war, this government handout was enough to accommodate the civilian soldiers who immediately joined up. But as the war drags on, thousands more are lining up for weapons and tactical gear to protect themselves and to join the fight against Putin.

The young guys in line tell The Daily Beast that “The Captain”, an 80-year-old retired mathematician, is the best man to explain their plan.

“I want to buy a gun to protect my country against the Russian army,” said Yaroslav Solomacha. His hands were shaking slightly with age, but he is spry and energetic. “I feel very well, I feel very strong physically. I am 80 but when I served the army in my youth, I was very good at shooting.”

Solomacha has not held a gun in over 30 years, but that has not deterred him from planning to fight. When asked why he feels so strongly, he says simply that he is very proud to be a Ukrainian. He was born in the Polish border town of Przemsyl but was forced to relocate east with his family in 1948 to Lviv by the Soviet government. He believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s entire narrative explanation of invading Ukraine on historical grounds is theft. “[The Russians] don’t have their own history, that is why they stole their history from us. We have the history of the Kievan Rus, they are stealing our story.”

While he will not join the Ukrainian army due to his age, he plans to join the local territorial defense units to protect Lviv. “If they come, I am ready to tear apart the Russian army with my teeth if I need,” he says with a ferocious grimace.

A makeshift shooting range has been set up in the basement of the store. There are no safety goggles or ear-muffs, or even lanes with protective fiberglass.

One young man calling himself “Yoda” was waiting to go inside. Asked why he is looking to get a gun, he simply replied “Putin khuylo,” which roughly translates to “Putin is a dickhead.”

Also among the crowd outside is Vladimir Sorin, a 32-year-old local photographer born in Lviv, who lives with his wife in a modest apartment in the city. He is accompanying his friend who is buying a firearm, since he already bought a semi-automatic shotgun for himself two days prior. “I bought a cheaper model, it is a Turkish-made Hugli Renova five round semi-automatic shotgun.”

“According to Ukrainian laws, you can buy anything from a shotgun to a 50 BMG. As long as it is semi-automatic, you can basically buy a nuclear warhead,” he says with a chuckle. “That is a joke, but that was all since the war started. People are buying everything. There is hardly anything left.”

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According to Sorin, it is not only fear of Russian troops that is sending people rushing to buy weapons. “People are planning to defend not so much against Russian troops because there is not much belief that the war will come so far [west] into Ukraine. But there are lots of people who are not from this city, more than 200,000 people that are not from here. And people are afraid they might be murderers and crooks,” Sorin said. The most recent statistics suggest the number of internal refugees in Lviv may be closer to 400,000 people.

“Basically, most people are buying arms to defend their homes and loved ones. And if worst comes to worst, we’ll have no choice but to defend ourselves against Russian troops. But hopefully it will not come to this.”

When asked about the bombing of a military base not far from Lviv and close to the Polish border, Sorin said he expected it to happen. “I knew that it would come because it is not a mystery and not a secret that there was a military base there.” He says that it does not change his belief that Russian troops will not make it to Lviv.

While he does not believe troops will come, he fears missile attacks. “Lviv is a beautiful city, with beautiful old architecture. It will be a tragedy if this old architecture will be destroyed.”

Not everyone is there to purchase for themselves. A young woman says she is waiting in line not to buy a gun, but to buy a knife for her friend who is fighting on the front lines in Kyiv. Nastya Ryshkovych is a 23-year-old student who fled from Kyiv but is originally from Lviv. She says she plans on eventually getting a weapon for herself, but is waiting because she wants the chance to train with a gun first before she buys one for herself. She has been too busy helping the influx of refugees to train so far. “Last year I learned a little bit,” she says, “but I want better military training to protect myself and my city.”

Ryshkovych explains that getting a weapon and knowing how to use one is an important way to do her part in the war.

“I believe every person in Ukraine should aim to protect our land, a woman or a man, so all Ukrainians know how to use a gun and protect our country when the time comes.”