Paramilitary "Civil Formations" Patrol, Train Personnel And Support War Effort In Ukraine

LVIV REGION, UKRAINE - FEBRUARY 22: Marina Matarzhuk, 21, an employee at a legal consulting firm, holds an assault rifle during a combat training day hosted by a local paramilitary civil formation called TSEL on February 22, 2023 in Lviv region, Ukraine. Paramilitary civil formations are the successor to the voluntary territorial defence units that emerged in the months before Russia's military invasion of Ukraine to train civilians in combat tactics. Today TSEL fulfils a number of roles, including supplying its own colleagues who are fighting under the Ukrainian armed forces in the east, patrolling Lviv and its outskirts to enforce nightly curfews, and to provide basic military skills such as shooting, first aid, drone operation and combat tactics to interested civilians. Today's training brought together former military service members who have not yet been mobilized for the war as well as civilians without previous military experience, including Marina, an industrial sewing machine repairman and a car mechanic. February 24 will mark the first anniversary since Russia's invasion. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)