This reminds me of Croatian Homeland War, which took place between 1990 and 1996. When Serbs invaded, there was no official Croatian Military, only a police force. Croatian state was still in the process of creation at the time. Authorities formed 'People Defense' organization for volunteers who were willing to protect their home towns and neighborhoods.

 

Those volunteers were successful in raising funds from local population. They also managed to procure weapons and equipment from black market and government sources. Some people payed for the equipment out of their own pockets. The result was platoon sized units of decently equipped fighters, some even had body armor. Volunteers from less dangerous parts of the country were eager participate fighting in more combat intensive parts. So they traveled to combat zone, reported to local commander and got assigned a post as a separate unit. They could have joined military which was in process of formation at the time, but their motivation was to stay together with people they know. It worked very well, and those units were, at least, as effective as regular ones. They remained separate, but found their place in chain of command. 

 

After the war those people had a lot of problems. There was no evidence of their participation, so they had to fight to get benefits which come with military service. Some even had legal problems, because they were unable to answer the mobilization which took place eventually, because they were on the battlefield already.

 

I suppose it is a step further compared to those Ukrainian activists, because people were able to recruit, finance, equip and deploy units on their own without government assistance.