The town usually comprises little more than a dozen wooden cottages, a church, two supermarkets and a few stray cats. Now, the grocery shop buzzes with soldiers in green fatigues and lines of military vehicles rumble through the unpaved streets.

“Just this morning, I saw a truck passing by in my street with military equipment,” Galina, an elderly woman who refused to give her last name, told The Telegraph as she carried a bag of groceries home. “This happens all the time.”

“It feels spooky sometimes,” added Daria Shershneva, a software developer. “You drive home, turn into your street and the first thing you see are tanks and young guys in uniforms warming by a campfire.”

Ms Shershneva said her mother is particularly worried about the threat of war but for younger people the prospect is more abstract.

“I think we’re less anxious. I used to discuss it with friends. Now it’s more like: ‘Tanks are here again’ and that’s that,” she said.