Volunteer soldiers were seen training with wooden assault rifles at an abandoned building site in Ukraine as fears grow of an invasion from Russia.
The army reservists were run through practice drills on Saturday, with some wearing trainers and sportswear as they aimed using mock weapons.
Nervous over the threat of some 120,000 Russian troops massed near the border, Kyiv has launched a new Territorial Defence force this year, which it hopes to build into a corps of 130,000 people.
While they may stand little chance against the much bigger and better-equipped professional Russian army, reservists could be tasked with protecting civilian sites in the capital amid any conflict.
Saturday's training brought together about 70 locals, some in full infantry gear with hunting rifles and with combat experience from back when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and then backed rebels fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine.
While the US has warned that military intervention is likely and imminent, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that too much "panic" is hurting the economy of 41 million people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the West has not addressed Moscow's main security demands in the crisis over Ukraine but that he is ready to keep on talking.
The West meanwhile has threatened Russia with heavy economic sanctions should it invade Ukraine again.
While Moscow insists it does not want a war, it has also dismissed calls to withdraw its troops, saying it can deploy them as it sees fit on its own territory.
It has cited the Western response as evidence that it is the target, not the instigator, of aggression.
The motley crew of reservists - arriving in everything from a small Suzuki to 4x4 vehicles and even an electric Tesla - shared a feeling that Ukraine, formerly a Soviet republic, wanted to decide its own fate independently of its old overlord Moscow.
It comes as professional Ukrainian soldiers were filmed being trained with British NLAW anti-tank weapons for the first time.
The NLAW hand-held guided missile launcher is seen as having an excellent guidance system which provides a high probability of destroying a moving target with the first shot.
Ukraine also has US Javelin anti-tank guided missiles and its own anti-tank systems and armed drones.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said on Friday it is not believed that Putin "has made a final decision to use forces against Ukraine" but added: "He clearly now has the capability."
Close Putin ally Konstantin Malofeev - who runs an investment group - claimed it would take just 48 hours to control Ukraine.
“Open military conflict between Russia and Ukraine cannot be a war, or, at least, a long-term war, because the difference in military potential is so big that there can be only an operation for forcing the peace,” he said.
“It will take 48 hours maximum, and we cannot talk about different fronts.”
