When Russia began its invasion of Ukraine last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the nation’s citizens to take up arms to defend themselves. Hanna Maliar, the country’s deputy defense minister, urged civilians to help “resist” invasion forces by making Molotov cocktails.
And many Ukrainians have done just that, filling milk crates with the makeshift bottle bombs, welding antitank blockades and grabbing Kalashnikovs as they patrol the streets with the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces, which are believed to have more than 130,000 volunteers.
The war has already taken its toll. At least 102 civilians in Ukraine have been killed since Russia launched its invasion last Thursday, with more than 300 others injured, United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said Monday, but the actual figure is feared to be “considerably higher.”
And according to the U.N., more than 500,000 Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s attack began.
Photos of civilian efforts in Ukraine
A girl sorts empty bottles that will be used to make Molotov cocktails at a humanitarian center in the Ukrainian city of Lviv on Sunday. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP via Getty Images)
Locals at a park in Dnipro, Ukraine, to make Molotov cocktails on Sunday. (Andrea Carrubba/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Civilian volunteers in Kyiv check their guns on Saturday. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Residents in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, make antitank obstacles on Sunday to defend the city. (Serhii Hudak/Reuters)
Locals in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, prepare Molotov cocktails on Sunday. (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A resident in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, prepares a Molotov cocktail on Sunday. (Serhii Hudak/Reuters)
Armed volunteers protect a main road leading into Kyiv on Friday. (Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)
Students and staff of the Uzhhorod Vocational Training Center prepare antitank hedgehogs. (Serhii Hudak/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
A Kyiv resident and volunteer prepares a rear post with trenches on Monday. (Daphne Rousseau/AFP via Getty Images)
Residents make Molotov cocktails in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. (Serhii Hudak/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Armed civilian volunteers in Kyiv on Friday. (Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)
Students and staff of the Uzhhorod Vocational Training Center prepare antitank hedgehogs. (Serhii Hudak/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
People prepare Molotov cocktails on Sunday. (Serhii Hudak/Reuters)
A member of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces teaches a volunteer about a Kalashnikov rifle on Sunday. (Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters)
A man patrols a Kyiv street that is empty due to curfew. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)
A volunteer demonstrates how to prepare a Molotov cocktail in Lviv, Ukraine, on Sunday.(Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)
Residents prepare Molotov cocktails in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, on Sunday. (Serhii Hudak/Reuters)
People gather at a park in Dnipro, Ukraine, to prepare Molotov cocktails on Sunday. (Andrea Carrubba/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Civilian members of a territorial defense unit prepare to repel Russian forces in Kyiv on Saturday. (Mikhail Palinchak/AP)
A volunteer rests in a bomb shelter in Kyiv on Saturday. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Where are Russian forces attacking Ukraine? Check out this explainer from Yahoo Immersive to find out.
