The Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik planned to spend last weekend planting flowers. Instead, she learned "to fire arms and get ready for the next night of attacks on Kyiv. We are not going anywhere. This our city, our land, our soil. We will fight for it."

Russia's war against Ukraine has already brought tales of extraordinary heroism by the defenders. They include a small group of border guards on an island in the Black Sea refusing to surrender to a Russian warship.

Then there was Vitaly Skakun, a 25-year-old sailor, who volunteered to place mines on a bridge to hold up the Russian advance. To make sure the blast was successful, he remained on the bridge and died in the explosion. He was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine.

All sorts of people have shown huge courage. One journalist says that every day she finds that another friend has joined the defence forces: "One day, they're driving their kid to a safer town from the Eastern border, the next they are digging trenches."

She found one of Ukraine's top pop stars, Andrii Khylvniuk, unpacking ammunition. Alongside him was a student who had left his course in the US to fight.

A TV presenter who had come from work to bring them soup. "Because of the curfew I couldn't reach home to change," she said, "so I'm still wearing the dress I wore during the broadcast and a bulletproof vest on top."

Sergiy Stakhovsky, a former tennis star, has joined Ukraine's army reserves.

Groups of women are filling crates with Molotov cocktails. Barricades are manned by people with just knives and hammers.

One video shows a man standing alone in front of a Russian tank to block its way. Another video shows a man carrying a mine away from a bridge in his bare hands.

Yes: Ordinary people can show amazing courage in difficult situations. War also encourages compassion and generosity towards the injured and the displaced.

No: War is an unmitigated evil that makes people behave like animals. Even those who are not fighting can behave with selfishness. Neighbours often turn against each other.

Or... It works both ways. For every hero, there is a coward, and for everyone who saves a neighbour, there is somebody else who betrays one.

Kira Rudik - The head of the pro-European party Voice, she had a career in IT before going into politics.

Posthumously - After death. It derives from two Latin words meaning after and ground.

Andrii Khylvniuk - The leader of a band called Boombox.

Curfew - Governor Vincenzo De Luca has banned Italians in the region around Naples from going out after 10pm. De Luca is known for his colourful outbursts on social media, bemoaning the "irresponsible" behaviour of young Neapolitans flouting social distancing rules.

Sergiy Stakhovsky - He was once 31st in the world tennis rankings, and knocked Roger Federer out of Wimbledon in 2013.

Molotov cocktails - Homemade petrol bombs. They are named after Russia's foreign minister during World War Two.