MARIUPOL, Ukraine – As President Vladimir Putin unveiled his peace plan for Ukraine on Sept. 3, three dozen men of varied ages started their studies in the military school in Mariupol in eastern Ukraine.
They
are the first batch of volunteers for a local self-defense battalion
that the city council called on the residents to form. Officially
subordinate to the Interior Ministry, they will be defending the city
from a Russian attack, which the residents have now been expecting
for nearly two weeks after thousands of Russian troops and tanks
entered Ukraine’s territory and took over the nearby city of
Novoazovsk.

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