INTERNATIONAL: A Ukrainian brewery has switched from making beer to producing Molotov cocktail petrol bombs to fight off Russian forces.

A Molotov cocktail, is also known as a petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, bottle bomb, poor man's grenade, fire bomb, fire bottle or just Molotov, sometimes shortened as Molly, is a generic name used for a variety of bottle-based improvised incendiary weapons.

UKranians armed with Molotov cocktails. A Molotov cocktail is a breakable glass bottle containing a flammable substance such as petrol, alcohol, or a napalm-like mixture, with some motor oil added, and usually a source of ignition such as a burning cloth wick held in place by the bottle's stopper.

Pravda Beer Brewery in the western city of Lviv has decided to contribute to the war effort by making Molotov cocktails in bottles with labels featuring image of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has encouraged citizens to make Molotov cocktails to defend the country and posted instructions on its website how to make them.

Putin has launched what he called a special military operation ignoring weeks of Western warnings and saying the "neo-Nazis" ruling Ukraine has threatened Russia's security, a charge Kyiv and Western governments say is baseless propaganda.

Russia's assault is the biggest on a European state since World War Two and threatens to upend the continent's post-Cold War order.