AILSA CHANG, HOST:
OK. We're going to turn now to Ukraine. A mass conscription drive continues there, but the country still needs more soldiers. Its troops are not only holding the defense on Ukrainian territory but have also launched an offensive operation in Russia. Many units do their own recruiting to select the best people, and one of the elite Ukrainian brigades even offers civilians the opportunity to live and train like soldiers for one week. NPR's Polina Lytvynova reports from Kyiv.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
POLINA LYTVYNOVA, BYLINE: A group of people in uniform gather on a clearing in deep discussion - but not for long.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Non-English language spoken).
LYTVYNOVA: Someone shouts, "grenade."
They all dive to the ground. Moments later, more incoming.
(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)
LYTVYNOVA: One man can't get up. He's holding his leg.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
LYTVYNOVA: His comrades rush to his side and pull him to safety.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).
LYTVYNOVA: Then, the injured man stands up, smiling. It was just a simulation with firecrackers and guns with no bullets. The people aren't soldiers, and this is not the front line. In fact, we're in Ukraine's heavily defended capital, Kyiv. But the participants want a taste of going into battle before they decide to actually sign up and possibly join one of Ukraine's most storied military units.
OLEKSII SICHKAR: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: One of them is 20-year-old construction worker Oleksii Sichkar. He lives far from the front line, in the Vinnytsia region in central Ukraine. But he came all the way to the capital because he says, if Ukraine doesn't have enough soldiers, the Russians might one day enter his hometown.
SICHKAR: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: "We are not sure that hostilities won't come to our area," he says.
(CROSSTALK)
LYTVYNOVA: The course, called Test Week, is organized by one of Ukraine's toughest military outfits, the Third Separate Assault Brigade.
MARYNA KIRSANOVA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: Maryna Kirsanova heard so much about the brigade's exploits from her friends that she decided to take the course.
KIRSANOVA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: "They're so cool", she says. "I didn't even expect that everything would be so real."
For seven days, she and other trainees learn how to use weapons, study battlefield medicine and improve their physical fitness.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Non-English language spoken).
LYTVYNOVA: All the instructors here have real combat experience. Maksym Levchenko helped set up the Test Week program. He is considered a hero for flying into the besieged port city of Mariupol with medicine, weapons and other soldiers to hold off the Russians. This is how he serves now - preparing civilians for military service.
MAKSYM LEVCHENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: At the end of the week, participants get feedback on how well they completed tasks, on their leadership qualities and teamwork and on how to improve. This is also an opportunity for the brigade to get new good soldiers, says Volodymyr Davydiuk, the head of the brigade's recruitment center in Kyiv.
VOLODYMYR DAVYDIUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: The unit relies mostly on its own recruiting rather than conscription, looking for motivation more than anything else.
DAVYDIUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: "Two, three weeks of physical training will put you at decent level of conditioning," Davydiuk assures. "As for tactics and medicine, you can teach everything else that is needed for war."
The Third Separate Assault Brigade has a nationwide ad campaign to sign people up, including banners strung across city streets.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Non-English language spoken).
LYTVYNOVA: There is even a Netflix documentary called "We Were Recruits," recounting the journey soldiers take from basic training to fighting on the front line. Of some 400 people who took part in the Test Week program, about 1 in 5 signed up after.
(CROSSTALK)
LYTVYNOVA: Back to the training base, the participants now hold each other by the shoulder, forming a circle, looking tired as they do squats.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #3: (Singing in non-English language).
LYTVYNOVA: But singing the national anthem seems to give them energy. Oleksii Sichkar, who will now return to central Ukraine, has already decided to sign up for the Third Separate Assault Brigade.
SICHKAR: (Speaking Ukrainian).
LYTVYNOVA: "I'm doing this for my family - to protect my mother and sister," he says. "I love them more than anything in the world."
Sichkar wants to join the brigade's assault forces, even though the risks of injury are higher and the bullets and bombs and grenades will be real ones.
Polina Lytvynova, NPR News, Kyiv.
(SOUNDBITE OF BADBADNOTGOOD AND GHOSTFACE KILLAH SONG, "TONE'S RAP") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.