Kira RudikThe head of the pro-European party Voice, she had a career in IT before going into politics. planned to spend last weekend planting tulips and daffodils in her back garden. Instead, the Ukrainian MP revealed on Twitter: "I learn to fire arms and get ready for the next night of attacks on Kyiv. We are not going anywhere. This is our city, our land, our soil. We will fight for it."

The first few days of Russia's war against Ukraine have 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 and telling its crew to get lost.

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 To make sure the blast was successful, he remained on the bridge after the rest of his unit had withdrawn and died in the explosion. He was posthumouslyAfter death. It derives from two Latin words meaning after and ground. awarded the title Hero of Ukraine.

Alongside the professional members of the armed forces, people from every walk of life have been showing tremendous courage. According to Rolling Stone's correspondent Nataliya Gumenyuk, "What Putin underestimated was that hipsterish Kyiv barbers, barmen and social media managers would be ready to resist."

Every day, she says, "I find out that another friend - a sociologist, a journalist, a writer, a historian, a filmmaker, both male and female - has joined the Territorial Defence. One day, they're driving their kid to a safer town from the Eastern border, the next they are digging trenches."

Visiting a civil-defence unit in Kyiv, she found one of Ukraine's best-known pop stars, Andrii KhylvniukThe leader of a band called Boombox., unpacking boxes of ammunition. Alongside him was a film student, Miro Popovych, who had abandoned his course in the US to fight.

They were being fed by a famous TV presenter who had come from work to bring them soup. "Because of the curfewGovernor 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. 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."

Another celebrity pitching in is Sergiy StakhovskyHe was once 31st in the world tennis rankings, and knocked Roger Federer out of Wimbledon in 2013., a former tennis star who has joined Ukraine's army reserves. Though he has no military experience, he feels obliged to defend his country.

Civilians are arming themselves with whatever they can. Groups of women crouch on the ground filling crates with Molotov cocktailsHomemade petrol bombs. They are named after Russia's foreign minister during World War Two.. Barricades are being manned by people with just knives and hammers.

Some are resisting without any weapons at all. One video shows a man standing alone in front of a Russian tank to block its way.

Another shows a man carrying a mine away from a bridge in his bare hands. A third is of a woman just screaming at Russian soldiers to go home. 

"The whole nation is against this aggression," says one Kyiv resident, Maria Popova. "And it's really hard to fight the whole nation... we are ready to fight here, and we are really angry."

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.