By Alexander Vasovich
Kyiv – As Russian troops approached the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Thursday, a muddy construction site in a local neighborhood was crowded with workers and welders from construction company KAN.
Instead of homes and offices, they built giant metal anti-tank barricades known as “hedgehogs” and smaller spiked barriers aimed at stopping wheeled vehicles.
After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, KAN, a large local real estate company, rediscovered itself to help defend the city of 3.4 million people.
Sugar, foreman, picked up the phone and began calling the company’s construction workers, who had remained in Kyiv. Almost all volunteered to stay and contribute, he said.
“We build things. We don’t know how to fight, but we knew we could be useful,” Zahar said. Sparks flickered a few feet as builders cut and welded large metal beams.
This is another example of how Ukrainian civilians support regular troops as they try to repel Russia’s offensive, including through civil defense units and independent militias formed across the country.
Russia says its actions in Ukraine are a “special operation” not intended to occupy territory, but to destroy its neighbor’s military capabilities and capture what it calls dangerous nationalists.
Ukraine’s army is lower than that of its powerful neighbor, but resistance in the first week of the conflict has slowed Russia’s progress, especially in urban areas.
Russia has so far captured a Ukrainian city – the southern port of the Dnieper Kherson – and is bombarding others with increasing intensity, including Kyiv and the country’s second city, Kharkiv.
A giant column of Russian armor has stopped as it approaches Kyiv from the north, delayed by resistance, mechanical damage and congestion, according to the British Ministry of Defense.
Hundreds of thousands fled the violence and fled to neighboring countries. Men of military age are prevented from leaving Ukraine.
The story continues
“WE WILL THROW A COPY”
On February 25th, Kyiv mayor and boxing champion Vitali Klitschko said the city “has entered a phase of defense”.
Heavy equipment was brought for the construction of concrete checkpoints, blocking positions and bunkers inside the city and on all major roads and suburbs.
At KAN, workers cut long pieces of beam using soldering torches and angle grinders, welding them together into triangular bulkheads used to strengthen fortifications and slow the movement of tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Alexander Bodyuk, the company’s deputy director, said workers also use rebars and beams rescued from construction sites to produce removable protections against wheeled vehicles, including trucks.
So far, the makeshift factory, which began operations this week, has produced 110 large hedgehogs, including 40 in the first 12 hours, Bodiuk said, adding that the company operates other similar sites in the city.
“We have a demand from many places for these types of blocking devices, we deliver them wherever they are needed in the area … subcontractors and friends provide transportation of products and materials,” he said.
Andriy Krishchenko, the deputy mayor of Kyiv who wore military aprons, 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 have received weapons and many more are waiting in the offices for recruitment and recruitment. The mayor’s office also supported units and troops of the territorial defense on the front line, Krishchenko said.
At the construction site, Sergei Serdyuk, a white-haired welder aged about 50, said workers were ready to take up arms and join the battle.
“If necessary, when the materials are finished, we will make copies and throw these copies on them.”
(Report by Alexander Vasovich; edited by Mike Colette-White)