Viktor, a pensioner, goes to sleep in breakaway eastern Ukraine, listening for shelling in case he needs to take cover.
In the city of Kharkov, Viktoria Makarova, a building firm manager, is learning to fire a rifle in case of an invasion.
People in Ukraine are trying to get on with their daily lives, but they are also preparing for the worst.
In the suburbs of Donetsk, the regional center of one of two regions in east Ukraine where rebels are fighting an armed conflict with the Ukrainian army, Viktor describes a grim post-retirement existence.
He lives a few kilometers from the front line on a pension from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
He also gets a Ukrainian pension, but in practice, it is hard to pick up.
He spends his time painting oil portraits of his relatives in Russia from photographs in his apartment, and last year sold three landscapes and two portraits for a pittance.
“One of your ears is on the pillow, the other is listening out for any shelling starting, in case you have to run to the basement. In short, we all need peace,” said Viktor, who declined to give his surname.
In Kharkov, about 40km from the Russian border, 44-year-old Makarova is one of numerous women who are signing up for self-defense courses.
“We’re not going to run away and abandon our beloved city of Kharkov, this means we have to learn how to defend it,” the Russian-speaker said.
On the weekend, she is out doing target practice with a rifle in a snowy field.
In the rebel-held Donetsk People’s Republic, Svetlana, who lives in a village by the front line, said she was resigned to what lay in store.
“Whatever happens, will happen,” Svetlana said.
“We’ll stay at home or at work when it starts,” she said. “Maybe we’ll survive, maybe not... Of course we’re scared, sure, but where can we go? Who needs us?”
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