Russian Invasion Threat Looms over Ukraine Border Village

If Russia invades Ukraine, "they don't need tanks, they can just walk," smiles Lev Nikolaevich, pointing with his deformed finger to the Russian border just behind the trees. "And we will welcome them."

While the world frets about an invasion amid the worst East-West confrontation since the Cold War, the 90 or so people in the tiny border village of Hryhorivka are more relaxed.

"That's just dirty politics," says Nikolaevich, a wrinkled man of 67 who looks 15 years older.

"Yes, we're a bit anxious, but there's no panic. Here, no one is scared of the Russians. They are our brothers. We are one people. If they come, we will welcome them and then life will continue just as before," he added.

With geopolitical tensions at fever pitch over the Ukraine crisis, Russia has moved tens of thousands of troops to the border and conducted military exercises which the West and Kiev say are a provocation to war.

If Russian President Vladimir Putin does decide to invade, the army would encounter no resistance in Hryhorivka, says Nikolaevich.

"We used to have 500 people here. Now it's just the elderly. There's nothing here for young people," he said, pointing at the tiny houses, half of which are in ruins, dotted between the blossoming fruit trees.

"Can you see us standing up to the Russian army?"

He says he knows what it is like to be part of an occupying force. As a young man, he was in the Soviet Red Army that marched into Czechoslovakia in 1968.

"Some Czechs treated us as occupiers, especially the young people. We got on better with the older people. It would be the same story if the Russian army came across the river," he said.

In the neighboring village of Uspenka, Lyudmila Rodenko, a 36-year-old accountant, underlines the close ties between Russia and the eastern part of Ukraine.

"Here, we love the Russians. There's nothing to fear from them. Half my family live on the other side. If their soldiers come, we'll smile at them."

She takes aim at politicians who want to "push us into war", vowing "it won't work."

"For me, I don't care whether I have a Ukrainian or a Russian passport. All I want is for us to be protected from the fascists that have seized power in Kiev," she said, repeating a common trope of Russian media that the new government in Kiev is dominated by ultra-nationalists.

"We're not separatists here, we just want to be respected."

At the nearest border crossing, traffic flows normally. The only signs that a war is looming are six huge concrete blocks, erected not to ward off invasion from Russia to the east, but to protect against incursions from their fellow Ukrainians to the west.

To the north, in the town of Torez, the flag of the self-proclaimed "People's Republic of Donetsk" flutters over the town hall.

Unlike more tense cities in the eastern Ukraine region, there are no barricades, no masked men wielding Kalashnikovs.

In the entrance hall stands a white bust of Maurice Thorez, the French communist leader after whom the town was named in 1964.

Security in the area is the business of the burly Vladimir, 50, who introduces himself as "the head of the defense force."

He says his men "are co-operating with the local police to make sure the bandits and fascists don't come near here."

Like many in the area, he scoffs at the idea he should be afraid of a Russian invasion.

"Scared of the Russians? Should we be scared of our brothers, our cousins? If they come, I will shake them by the hand.

"During the Soviet Union, we were one land. We went hunting together. I am Ukrainian but they are not my enemies and they never will be."

The former Black Sea naval officer said the fact there is a border between the two countries is "ridiculous."

"That's why we created the Republic of Donetsk. We want to be an independent country in a union with Russia. 

"We want to be part of something big."