In Ukraine conflict, even the elderly are getting ready to fight

Local resident Vladimir Radkevich, 71, and his sons Roman and Denis, aged 45 and 34, speak while sitting on a bench at a military mobilization point opened in a school in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk, Ukraine February 19, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

MARIUPOL/DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Elderly men and women, some well past retirement age, are getting ready to fight on either side of the separatist conflict in Ukraine as tensions ratchet higher by the day.

Fighting between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian army has been dragging on for eight years but an increase in shelling in recent days has deepened Western fears that Russia could use the conflict as a pretext to invade Ukraine - an accusation that Moscow denies.