Brave Ukrainian citizens were filmed marching towards Russian soldiers on Saturday while getting shot at.
The footage, which appears to have been taken in the city of Melitopol, shows a group walking towards Vladimir Putin’s forces as they fire their guns in the air as a warning.
They are seen carrying Ukrainian flags and chanting at the soldiers in the clip, which was filmed on Wednesday but was widely shared on social media on Friday.
Protests erupted in the city last week, with demonstrators telling Radio Free Europe the Russian army was “trying to intimidate us”.
The Russian Army last week claimed to have captured the city, which lies in the country’s southeastern Zaporizhzhya region – though the claim was disputed by UK armed forces minister James Heappey, who said it was “still in Ukrainian hands”.
Footage published on Thursday showed Ukrainians marching against advancing Russian troops and throwing themselves on the ground to block the path of military vehicles. They were also heard chanting “murderers” and “occupants” at the soldiers.
Similar acts of resistance have been seen in other Ukrainian cities, with locals in the town of Enerhodar reportedly blocking a road to prevent a Russian military column from reaching a nuclear plant.
The Russian Army has faced fierce resistance since the beginning of the invasion on February 24, despite the Kremlin’s belief that it could overcome the Ukrainian army swiftly.
More than 2,000 civilians have died so far during the conflict, according to Ukrainian authorities, while the UN estimates that 1 million refugees have fled the country.
The United Nations said on Saturday that the majority of the civilian casualties during the invasion have been caused by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, as well as from missile and air strikes.
