Ready To Face Russian Soldiers With Spears If Barricades Run Out, Kyiv Residents: We Don't Know Fight, But Could Be Useful

Civilians with guns stand guard in Kyiv. (Wikimedia Commons/VOA/Yan Bochat)

JAKARTA - As Russian troops approached the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Thursday, a muddy construction site in the local neighborhood filled with workers and welders from real estate developer KAN.

Instead of homes and offices, they built giant metal anti-tank barricades known as 'hedgehogs' and smaller spiked barriers, aimed at stopping enemy vehicles.

After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, KAN, a large local property company, reinvented itself to help defend the city of 3.4 million people.

Zakhar, a foreman, picked up the phone and started calling the company's construction workers who were still living in Kyiv. Nearly everyone volunteered to stay and contribute, he said.

"We are building something. We don't know how to fight, but we know we can be useful", Zakhar said. Several meters away sparks flew as the builders cut and put together the large metal blocks.

This is another example of how Ukrainian civilians support regular forces, as they try to resist Russian advances, including through civil defense units and independent militias that have formed across the country.

Russia says its actions in Ukraine are "special operations" not designed to occupy territory. However, to destroy the military capabilities of his neighbors and capture what he called dangerous nationalists.

Ukraine's military is dwarfed by its powerful neighbor, but resistance in the first week of the conflict has slowed Russia's progress, especially in urban areas.

So far, Russia has captured one Ukrainian city, the Dnipro Riverport south of Kherson, and has been bombarding other cities with increasing intensity, including Kyiv and the country's second city Kharkiv.

Civilians make Molotov cocktails in Kyiv. (Wikimedia Commons/VOA/Yan Bochat)

A giant column of Russian armor stalled as it approached Kyiv from the north, delayed by resistance, mechanical failure, and traffic jams, according to the British defense ministry.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the violence and crossed into neighboring countries. Men of fighting age were prevented from leaving Ukraine.

On February 25, Kyiv's mayor and boxing champion, Vitali Klitschko, said the city "has entered a defensive phase." Heavy equipment was brought in to construct concrete checkpoints, block positions, and bunkers within the city and along main roads, and on the outskirts of the city.

At KAN, workers cut long beams using blowtorches and angle grinders, welding them into triangular barriers used to reinforce fortifications and slow the movement of tracked tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Oleksandr Bodyuk, deputy director of the company, said workers were also using reinforcing bars and beams salvaged from construction sites to produce barbed and mobile defenses against wheeled vehicles, including trucks.

So far, the makeshift factory, which started operations this week, has produced 110 'large hedgehogs', including 40 in the first 12 hours, Bodyuk said, adding that the company runs other similar sites in the city.

"We have requests from many places for this type of blocking device, we ship it wherever they need it in the area. Subcontractors and friends provide transportation for products and materials", he said.

Meanwhile, Andriy Kryschenko, deputy mayor of Kyiv wearing the military uniform, said many similar companies and workshops have adapted to produce hedgehogs, concrete barriers, and other defenses.

He added that tens of thousands of people in Kyiv had received weapons and many more were waiting at the registration and recruitment offices. The city hall also supports the Territorial Defense units and troops on the front lines, Kryschenko said.

At the construction site, Serhiy Serdyuk, a grizzled welder in his 50s, said workers were ready to take up arms and join the battle.

"If we have to, when the materials run out, we will make spears and we will throw the spears at them", he stressed.