Chortkov is due to complete preparations for his 500th birthday this summer, but instead the small medieval town in the west Ukraine getting ready for war.
Road signs are being removed, street lighting is being turned off, checkpoints are being built at entry points, battle plans are being drawn up and hundreds of men are being recruited into military units.
Today, police plan to teach volunteers how to make and throw Molotov cocktails – although they call them kokteli shchastya (“cocktails of happiness”) because they do not want to get their mouths dirty with the name of the Russian Soviet-era politician.
Similar preparations in a historic city 300 miles from the Ukrainian capital Kiev, away from the Russian border and the fighting that erupted after the president Vladimir Putin lined up in his forces last week underscore the appalling speed with which the war changed this country.
“We are preparing to defend ourselves because we believe there is a high probability that we will be attacked,” said Mayor Vladimir Shmatko.
Chortkov has already seen missiles fly over them on their way to destroy an airport and fuel depot in Ivano-Frankivsk on the first day of Putin’s invasion – which Shmatko revealed to me were fired from the Russian enclave of Transnistria in Moldova.
Now the 30,000-strong city in western Ukraine, a region with close cultural and historical ties to Poland, has been warned to expect an attack by military forces from Minsk.
“If we face troops, I think they will be from Belarus,” Shmatko said.
Civil defense members prepare Molotov cocktails in a courtyard in Kiev, Ukraine on Sunday after fighting broke out in the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv
Vladimir Chmatko, Chortkov’s mayor, says there is a “high probability” the area will be attacked by Russian forces
Although Belarus is conducting joint military exercises with Russia, it would mean a significant expansion of the war if its troops cross the Ukrainian border.
Yesterday, the country’s dictator Alexander Lukashenko confirmed that they had fired rockets at Ukraine.
“We expect an attack from Belarus along the entire length of the border. They have everything ready for this – the equipment is in combat formations, refueled, “said Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.
Entering Chortkiv on Saturday afternoon, I saw people removing the city’s name following a government order that day to remove all road signs to confuse Russian troops.
They also built a huge concrete checkpoint, sandbags and piles of tires at the main entrance to the road.
It was completed in one day by 80 locals, along with some bedrooms and kitchens in an abandoned sausage factory.
Shmatko, 36, a former army officer who fought against Russia in the Eastern Donbass region eight years ago, said they were building similar checkpoints at all of the city’s entrances to prevent saboteurs from entering and guard against the arrival of invading forces.
“If they see the tanks coming on the road, they are ordered to report their arrival and then withdraw, as this [the checkpoints] “It will be destroyed in one blast and it will kill everyone,” he said.
We met after the mayor, dressed in his old army uniform, concluded a meeting of the ten-member military council that was set up in the city after Ukraine imposed martial law four days ago.
He said they focus on protecting key infrastructure, strengthening defense, collecting medical supplies for the frontline forces and helping the thousands of refugees flooding the area to the border.
Chortkov, with its impressive 17th-century Gothic Catholic Church and synagogue, has a strong military legacy, as it was the site of a former Soviet air base and home to four military units. Many Russian officers remained there after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
I reached the familiar howl of air raid sirens, so I immediately joined the local families and some foreign students studying in the city basement. The sirens sounded four more times in the last 24 hours.
The city looked full of army and police in uniform, with dozens gathered around a recruitment service.
Dnieper locals gather in Rocket Park to prepare Molotov cocktails on Sunday. Pictured: Empty bottles ready to be turned into explosive weapons
A local is preparing to use a Molotov cocktail against a wall during an all-Ukrainian training campaign earlier this month
During a short walk before curfew on Saturday night, I was twice asked to show my documents to the police, who told me not to stay on the street.
“We called on all the men to join the Territorial Defense Forces (Territorial Defense Forces) and gave them weapons and ammunition,” Shmatko said.
“These are trained men who have served in the army and know what to do with their weapons. There are about 500 of them.
“There are also volunteers who may be hunters who know how to handle a rifle, but do not know how to throw a grenade or shoot a Kalashnikov. We train them. So far there are 100, but there will be many more.
“We are now preparing a plan for all our units to know what to do if there is a tank attack. This will be a master plan for both military and civilian units.
Among those joining the defense force is 29-year-old Konstantin, a local science teacher who fought in Donbass against pro-Russian separatists in 2014 and signed up yesterday.
His wife and four-year-old son are trapped after visiting her parents in Kherson, a city near Crimea where the battle rages after the airport was taken over by Russia. “I’m worried about them, so I can’t stay indifferent,” he said.
“I will fight because I have the right experience.”
In the town hall I found 22 people who helped sort out donations of food for refugees and medical supplies for Kiev and the military.
A stream of locals came with everything from camp beds and pickled vegetables to drugs bought from the pharmacy.
Locals prepare Molotov cocktails to defend their city of Uzhgorod on Sunday
In addition to using Molotov cocktails, residents have been asked to remove all road signs to confuse Russian troops.
Among the volunteers was 25-year-old Ina Dzindra, who fled Kiev on Friday with her boyfriend and immediately set up an online system to find drugs needed by people in the capital.
“They have food and clothes, but all the pharmacies are closed,” she said.
The couple had hoped to send supplies by train, but if that proved impossible, they would take them back to the war-torn city by car.
“We must all do our best, because the Russians want to besiege Kiev, and it is vital that it survives for all of us.”
Like many people I met here, Mayor Shmatko, a member of a local liberal party, sought to thank Britain for its “important and inspiring” support for Ukraine. “Putin is in the corner and his plan is not working, so he can do anything,” he said.
So Chortkov, like so many other cities in this nation, is preparing for the worst.
“Ukraine will pay a high price for democracy and we may not all survive. We did not want to fight, but we must keep the enemy away from our land and make them leave us alone.