"You have to find ways to live a normal life," says a mother of four in Kyiv. She and her family keep their car full of fuel and plan to take refuge in a village outside the capital if Russia attacks.

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

For nearly eight years, Ukrainians have learned to live with a war against Russian-backed separatists on their country's eastern border. Tensions have risen now, with Russian troops gathered on the border seemingly poised to invade Ukraine. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley spent a recent evening with a family in the capital, Kyiv, and found them preparing for the worst.

ARTYOM KLUCHNIKOV: (Non-English language spoken).

ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Artyom and Marina Kluchnikov eat dinner with their two youngest children at the kitchen table. They've raised all four of their kids - ages 22, 18, 11 and 3 - in this small apartment in a Soviet-era housing block on the outskirts of Kyiv. But with the threat of a Russian invasion, they wonder if they might soon have to leave, says Artyom.

A KLUCHNIKOV: We do not have, like, a suitcase with stuff already packed into it, but I have a checklist so that I will just, you know - if something happens...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).

A KLUCHNIKOV: And I need to make sure that my car has at least three-quarters of a tank full at any given point in time.

BEARDSLEY: Over the last eight years, Artyom and Marina, both 46, have seen changes in their country brought on by the frozen conflict in the east. They say Ukrainians have started to see their neighbor as an enemy.

A KLUCHNIKOV: We see the lies that Russia tells about us. We see the numbers, the death toll of people in the east - you know, how many soldiers die for us. I think it goes to the - I don't know - national memory, I guess, where we know what is the reason for those deaths.

BEARDSLEY: It's Russian President Vladimir Putin. They hold him responsible for the more than 13,000 dead. Putin also took the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, but Artyom says Putin is getting the opposite of what he wants.

A KLUCHNIKOV: Putin has done a lot of good thing (ph) for establishing Ukrainian national mentality. He's the one who invested so much effort into that. He tried to bring us in, but the only thing that he has done is pushed us away.

BEARDSLEY: Polls show a majority of Ukrainians now want to be a part of NATO, which was not the case before.

A KLUCHNIKOV: And it's funny. You know, when I was growing up in Soviet Union, I still remember how NATO was portrayed then - that it's a threat, that it's an enemy, that all they want is to invade, etc., etc.

BEARDSLEY: Artyom says Putin's rhetoric hasn't changed since Soviet times. He and Marina say most Ukrainians don't want to speak Russian anymore, and there's a resurgence of the Ukrainian language and culture since 2014.

MARINA KLUCHNIKOV: It's a painful issue for me because my father, for instance, he grew up in Russia. My great-grandmother, she was a teacher of Russian, and I grew up speaking Russian. And I was never against Russia, never.

BEARDSLEY: But now Marina doesn't even speak Russian with her own sister anymore.

(SOUNDBITE OF TELEPHONE RINGING)

A KLUCHNIKOV: (Non-English language spoken).

BEARDSLEY: Eldest son Nikita drops by. He's studying at Kyiv's National University of Construction and Architecture. He says his crowd isn't thinking much about war and politics.

NIKITA KLUCHNIKOV: You know, we're not concerned till it's getting to you personally. For instance, like, right now, one of my main concerns actually is not going to the military.

BEARDSLEY: Like Nikita, many young Ukrainians NPR talked to aren't following the situation as closely as their elders.

(SOUNDBITE OF BABY CRYING)

BEARDSLEY: As parents, Marina and Artyom have to deal with the threat of a Russian invasion on top of the pandemic. They've also had health concerns. Three-year-old Sasha had to have open-heart surgery a year and a half ago. Marina says he was strapped to a hospital bed for 10 days.

M KLUCHNIKOV: I couldn't hug him, couldn't hold him.

BEARDSLEY: So she sang to him in Ukrainian. She runs and gets her guitar as we're speaking.

M KLUCHNIKOV: (Playing guitar, singing in Ukrainian).

BEARDSLEY: Marina believes God gives children to parents for a reason. She lets Artyom follow the war and daily tensions with Russia.

M KLUCHNIKOV: It's important for children that the mom is happy, that mom is stable emotionally. There are people around us, and somehow, with God's help, we do believe we're going to manage it.

BEARDSLEY: The Kluchnikovs say if Russia invades, their plan is to get out of the city and take refuge at the family cottage in a village a few hours west of Kiev. There's no running water or electricity, but they'll be able to grow their own food, they say. They've begun drying fruits and vegetables to take with them.

Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Kyiv.

M KLUCHNIKOV: (Playing guitar, singing in Ukrainian). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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