Wielding Soviet-designed Kalashnikov rifles, a group of Russian women with elaborate manicures and clad in camouflage are drilling different firing positions, first aiming on their knees and then their stomachs. The gym where the women have gathered in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg near the Ural Mountains is some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) from the frontline in Ukraine. But the year-long conflict raging in the eastern region of Donetsk has injected new militaristic fervour in Russia and fears that the fight could come back home. "We thought that if something happens, if -- God forbid -- there is an attack or some kind of danger, we should learn to protect ourselves and our loved ones," activist and founder of the group, Olga Smetanina, tells AFP. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES