LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – In his grandparents’ time, mentioned Maksym Kozytsky, there was a saying: In each cellar it is best to conceal a gun to fight the Russians.
Today, Kozytsky, 41, sits in a semi-fortified constructing in Lviv, a metropolis in western Ukraine, the place as regional governor he’s getting ready his nation’s most emphatically pro-European area for the doable arrival of Russian troopers.
Lviv, a metropolis of trams and cobblestone streets, has not come underneath assault since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine final week.
But tons of of hundreds of individuals fleeing struggle in jap Ukraine have poured via Lviv – the most important metropolis within the nation’s west – and the area that shares its identify. Lviv has change into not only a refuge, however a staging space for humanitarian support and troopers pouring again into Ukraine’s struggle zone.
“We have at all times identified the Russians should not our brothers,” mentioned Kozytsky. “It’s time for folks to prepare.”
Nearby his workplace, within the metropolis’s previous quarter, locals wrapped statues in padded materials to defend them from being broken by any future shelling.
For now, he mentioned, the Russians have been preoccupied with their assault on Ukraine’s jap cities, together with the capital Kyiv.
“They lack the forces to open one other entrance,” he mentioned. “Their first and foremost job is to take the capital, for the reason that reputable authorities and president of Ukraine are situated there.”
Asked if the Russians will then assault Lviv, he replied: “No probability – as a result of they won’t take Kyiv.”
Despite days of bombardment by Russia, Ukrainian troopers and civilians have resisted the Russian invasion, and Kyiv and different main cities remained of their palms on Thursday night.
Kozytsky wears a navy jacket however shouldn’t be a soldier. He skilled as a surgeon, then left drugs for enterprise. Until his appointment as governor two years in the past, he was director of Eco-Optima, which describes itself as the most important renewable power firm in western Ukraine.
Now as a substitute of constructing wind farms, Kozytsky helps the area of two.5 million folks put together to resist Russia’s invasion. The disaster has additionally remodeled IT managers and restaurateurs into support staff and troopers.
Kozytsky mentioned his 17-year-old son was volunteering at Lviv practice station, the place hundreds of Ukrainians and different nationalities have come.
He sits in a lofty workplace the scale of two squash courts, at a desk containing an antiquated phone and a pristine copy of “A Journey: My Political Life” by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Kozytsky mentioned he welcomed the hundreds of volunteers from different international locations who have been heading to Lviv to fight alongside Ukrainians, however Russian troopers would get a really totally different reception.
“We are prepared to obtain them,” he mentioned, including with a steely look: “But it might be higher for them in the event that they did not come.”
(Reporting by Andrew R.C. Marshall; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
