KYIV (NYTIMES) - Glass shards, bits of metal and shell casings, the detritus from a fierce and lethal street fight in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, lay scattered over hundreds of yards of pavement. Leading away from the site were bloody footprints.
The fighting, part of a seesaw battle over two nights in the northern parts of Kyiv, left Russian trucks and a tracked vehicle smouldering on a highway. And it signalled that, though vastly outgunned, Ukraine's army and a growing corps of civilian volunteers are mounting a spirited defence of the capital.
While military experts say the odds are stacked against them, for now, the combined Ukrainian defence forces have defied expectations by slowing and in some cases halting the Russian army's advance, apparently upsetting Moscow's war plans. After three days of battle, Russia has yet to take any major cities.
The change to a war footing has been swift, for some almost bewilderingly so.
What just three days ago had been a bustling, modern European capital, with copious restaurants, bars and cafes, slipped into an eerie war footing faster than seemingly imaginable.
Vans and cars with armed men without uniforms careened along the streets. Checkpoints went up seemingly at every stoplight, with men and women in civilian clothes, carrying rifles and stopping cars.
"When I heard the explosions I decided that I am ready," said Ms Olena Sokolan, a business manager who received a rifle to help defend the capital. "I am adult woman, I am healthy and it's my responsibility."
The newly armed civilians and members of various paramilitary groups are fighting under the loose command of the military in an organisation called the Territorial Defence Forces.
"In the city itself, the territorial defence detachments are working quite effectively," Mr Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential chief of staff, said in a statement on Saturday morning. "It turned out that people are coming out, defending their homes. It wasn't expected by analysts of the Russian General Staff."
At an army recruitment centre where Kalashnikov rifles were being handed out, several dozen men milled about. Before receiving their guns, they were asked to form ad hoc units of about 10 men each and choose a commander, several of the men in line said.
One group was dressed in a motley assortment of sweatpants and camouflage jackets, some in tennis shoes and others in hiking boots. But they all bore yellow arm bands identifying them as members of the Territorial Defence Forces.
The new unit walked out the driveway of the recruitment centre and off into the city, where booms could be heard through the afternoon. "Glory to Ukraine!" men still waiting for their rifles yelled. "Glory to its heroes!" the members of the new unit shouted back.
Men from their 20s to late 50s, from a range of backgrounds, showed up.
Igor, 37, an economist for an online retailing company, who did not want his last name published for safety reasons, stood in line for his gun. He spoke at barely a whisper, and his lips trembled. The dull thud of bombs or artillery could be heard in the distance.
"I never served in the army or with the police or anything," he said, adding that he hoped to be able to figure it out. He was worried, he said. "But people who are really afraid are sitting at home. They aren't out here now."
Said Mr Denis Matash, 33, the manager of Milk, a Kyiv nightclub, while standing in line with about 50 other men at the recruitment centre: "Everybody in our country needs to defend - women, girls, everybody."
Ms Iryna Koziienko, 42, a psychologist, said she came so nurses could "take just a little of my blood to support the bodies of my people".
After the attack began on Kyiv on Friday (Feb 25), she said: "I am sometimes scared, but I am also angry. You see this wonderful weather today? It is sunny, it feels like spring. The birds are singing. I don't want to have war on my land."
At the site of the fighting on Saturday morning, bullets had hit shop windows and a car hundreds of yards away. A tank had churned tracks into the asphalt of Victory Prospect. The hulks of Russian military vehicles on the streets of Kyiv had burned to a rich, rusty orange colour, and an acrid smell wafted off them.
Walking in this area created a tinkling noise, from shorn pieces of metal from the destroyed vehicles, shell casings, broken glass and other debris. Small pieces of human flesh were scattered around the site from an explosion.
A trail of blood splatters and bloody footsteps led into an underground parking garage, suggesting a wounded soldier had made his way inside.
Several families were sheltering in the parking garage, including an elderly woman and a man with a baby, sitting on mats covered in blankets in the parking spaces.
Elena, 36, a human resources manager who did not want her last name made public out of concern for her safety, said she had been inside the garage during the battle.
She listened to the cacophony of snaps and pops of small-arms fire and thunderous explosions outside. She was not sure how long it lasted.
"It was an eternity for me," she said.
