Vigilante death squads set up across eastern Europe to fight off Vladimir Putin’s soldiers as fears of a full-scale invasion grow

SECRET World War 2 style resistance groups are being formed in Estonia amid fears of a looming Russian invasion.

The Estonian Defence League so far has 25,400 volunteers from all walks of life who are ready to defend their homelands should they become occupied.

With weapons being distributed among the population, the league are tasked with carrying out guerrilla war hit-and-run attacks on Russian soldiers.

This would involve them laying improvised explosive devices (IED) - like those that slaughtered and maimed hundreds of Brit squaddies in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Arms would be hidden at secret spots and be used to wreak havoc against the occupiers, disrupting supplies and draining morale.

Resistance members are being trained survival such as making shelters in woods, separating friends from foe and identify differing types of Russian armoured vehicles and weapons.  

Men and women of all ages can join if they have a basic level of fitness.

But it is not just in Estonia where civilians are preparing for invasion.

In Poland there are more than 10,000 members in various volunteer paramilitary groups.

The nation is famed for its Second World War resistance movement that battled its Nazi overlords.

Although the Polish government denies having any links to the group its military is interested in working with them.

It is understood the army was looking into compiling training manuals for them and supplying them with surplus equipment.

But meanwhile, Russia has been accused of having its own secret fighters.

This is because it favours "hybrid warfare" which involves fighting with troops who are not officially yours. 

In 2014 Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine - under the pretext it was helping ethnic Russians from the rebels.

And it is believed to be bidding to follow the same cunning plan in the so called Donetsk People's Republic - an area of Ukraine which has broken away. 

Here secretly trained militias have been allegedly sent by Vladimir Putin to help them fight Ukrainian government forces.

The Baltic static states fear they face the same scenario - that is agents stirring up tension among its own ethnic Russians people and then drafting irregular troops and weapons.

The militias are thought to come from the ultra-nationalist Eurasian Youth Union who detest the western powers such as the US and Britain.

Putin expert and biographer Boris Reitschuster asserts in his new book "Putin's Hidden War" that secret reports detail the formation of covert fighter groups across the continent including France and Germany.

"This means the Kremlin leader and ex-Intelligence chief Putin has direct access to an elite fighter network in the West," he told Bilde, a German tabloid newspaper.

On Saturday it emerged that booklets warning of a Russian invasion and offering advice on how to identify tanks, bullets and mines have been distributed by the Lithuanian government.

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