As tensions soar in Ukraine's east and Western leaders issue dire warnings that a wider war could be coming, calm persists along Ukraine's western border with European Union nation Poland.
A sports centre painted with the Olympic rings in a small Polish community directly on the border stands ready to house Ukrainian refugees. For now, the centre in Medyka is empty. At the nearby border crossing, there is no sign of Ukrainians fleeing.
Many Ukrainians do just the opposite: cross the border back into Ukraine after working or shopping in Poland, some defiantly vowing to defend their country in case of a larger Russian invasion.
“Russia expected everyone to panic and flee to Europe, to just buy buckwheat and pasta, food, but we all bought machine guns and weapons and cartridges," Volodymyr Halyk, 29, said.
"No one is afraid, no one will abandon their homes, no one will flee.”
Halyk and a friend, Volodymyr Yermakov, described themselves as veterans of the war against Russia-backed separatists that began in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Yermakov, 34, said he was prepared to take up arms again should Russian President Vladimir Putin launch an invasion.
“Putin is an aggressor and does not allow anyone to live a normal life," he said. "They want to take our territory, and that's the truth.”
Russia has denied plans to invade Ukraine, but Western officials have said that with an estimated 150,000 troops and equipment surrounding the country on three sides, an attack could happen at any time.
People in Poland, which was controlled by Moscow during the Cold War, are following the news of Russia's military buildup with concern.
The Polish government last year became embroiled in a migration dispute with another eastern neighbour, Russian ally Belarus.
Poland and the European Union accused Belarus of assisting people from the Middle East to cross the border into Poland.
The Polish government called the migration part of an effort of hybrid war aimed at destabilising central Europe and the EU more widely.
Mariusz Gumienny, the town council chairman in Medyka, said the thousands of additional US troops who arrived in the area are helping to maintain a sense of security.
“It calms the mood,” he said.
The US deployed nearly 5,000 more troops to Poland in recent weeks. They come in addition to 4,000 rotational troops the US began sending after Russian actions against Ukraine in 2014.
The job of the American soldiers is to reassure NATO ally Poland and to be in place to help evacuate US citizens or Ukrainians should that be necessary.