Careful observations of animal behaviour, searching for locations for their safe movement and charity art exhibitions to help shelters — all this is done by students of the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in their projects. We got acquainted with several teenagers to ask them about their animal protection ideas and research.

So, together with the JASU, we present the young authors of scientific and social projects who make this world a more humane place.

Both elk and crab have to cross the road

Yehor Basatskyi likes to play basketball and learn languages — English and German. He studies at Liko School in Kyiv.

Last year, Yegor received an honorary award at the international school project competition on ecology GENIUS Olympiad Ukraine. The boy researched where ecoducts could be built on the future Kyiv Bypass Road. He will tell you what it is and why it’s important.

An ecoduct is a bridge over the road or a tunnel under it. It is built so that animals can safely cross the road. Ecoducts save both animals and people from accidents.

For example, if there is a pond on one side of the road, and an animal lives on the other side, it has to get to the water somehow. With an ecoduct, it won’t have to cross the road in front of cars. And also, sometimes an animal lives in one part of the forest, and there is prey in another. People have built a road and blocked the animal’s usual route. Ecoducts are built so that animals can move through this obstacle.

When I started working on the project for the Junior Academy, I didn’t even know what ecoducts were. Then I delved into the topic and found out that many of them were built both in America and Europe. I went on a trip and started noticing ecoducts: I saw bridges for large animals in Poland and Austria. In fact, there are also tunnels, but they are just harder to notice.

Ecoducts are built not only for large animals like deer and wild boars but also for turtles and crabs. On Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, there is an unusual bridge for crabs. Every year, millions of these animals simultaneously head from the centre of the island to the ocean to mate. Special tunnels were built for them, and where it wasn’t possible to make a tunnel, they built a rectangular bridge 5 metres high. Its “road surface” is a mesh that crabs can easily cling to with their legs. Moreover, in Japan, there is a passage for turtles under the railroad. And the most interesting thing for me was to learn that in Asia and South America there are ecoducts for monkeys: these are ropes above the road, hanging like lianas, so that monkeys can move from one part of the forest to another.

Both near Kyiv and in Polissia, we have deer, wolves, foxes and roe deer. And even for small animals like hares, for example, ecoducts can be built.

My project was related to the Kyiv Bypass Road. I looked at where it should pass: where the forests were, where the water bodies were. I learned about the surrounding reserves and the animals living there. I also received statistics on accidents with animals in Ukraine. I thought about how the road could interfere with the routes of animals. So, where the highways divide the animal habitats, I suggested building ecoducts. For example, near Bucha, the road should pass through the forest. In one part of it, there is a pond on the Bucha River. An ecoduct can be built there so that elks, deer, roe deer or wild boars can safely reach the water.

How do predators feel in the zoo?

Sofiia loves animals very much and can easily find common ground with them. She has a cat, 4 guinea pigs, 5 rats and 4 mice.

In her research paper for the Junior Academy of Sciences, she studied how the number of zoo visitors affected the behaviour of lions and tigers living in captivity. Sofiia took second place at the All-Ukrainian Contest for the Defence of Scientific Research Projects of the JASU in the Zoology section in 2023.

Disclaimer from UAnimals media: we are against capturing animals from the wild to keep them in zoos. However, we appreciate Sofiia’s research: it’s important to care for those animals that are already in captivity and take into account their needs for solitude and interaction.

I’ve always enjoyed communicating with animals, so I joined a group of young naturalists. It was there that I decided to write a research paper. I wanted to study the behaviour of tigers and lions because they are very intelligent animals.

My research supervisor and I were thinking about the most useful topic. We settled on researching how the number of visitors to the zoo affected the animals. It was important to me that tigers and lions in captivity could feel as comfortable as possible.

The lions I observed at the Kyiv Zoo were Hercules, Liliia, Khrystyna and Daryna, and the tigers were Rena, Maliuk and Amba. I came two to three times a week and observed from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm. It was crucial to stick to the schedule because animals behave differently throughout the day. If I had observed them at different times, it could have affected the results.

The weather, of course, also affects the activity of tigers and lions. They hide when it rains or when it’s too hot. So I selected observations when the weather was approximately the same. These were sunny days in May and June.

I had an ordinary notebook in my hands. Every 5 minutes, I stood near the enclosure and recorded what the tiger or lion was doing. The enclosures at the Kyiv Zoo are arranged in a circle, so I had to run very quickly from one animal to another. It was difficult at first, but then I got used to it. For example, at 3:00 pm I observed lions, at 3:01 pm — a tiger, at 3:02 pm — another tiger, at 3:03 pm — one more, and then lions again. Towards the end of the research, the tigers started to recognise me.

At first, I wrote down what the specific animal was doing because I didn’t know their behavioural patterns. Then I summarised the records and divided the behaviour into such patterns: inactive — when the animal sleeps or lies down; comfort behaviour — for example, a tiger licking its fur; interaction — a tiger looks into the visitor’s eyes, shows interest, may meow; feeding; movement; exploratory behaviour — can sniff something, touch it with a paw; marking — the animal leaves its scents in various places of the enclosure; social — tigers and lions can vocalize or interact with each other in another way.

When there were no people around, the animals spent time inside the enclosures — in the part of the structure invisible to visitors. They also hid when there were too many people. According to my observations, they felt most comfortable on weekdays, when the number of visitors was average. Then lions and tigers showed the most comfortable and exploratory behaviour.

Artistically helping a dog shelter

Tetiana is studying architecture at the Sumy College of Civil Engineering and Architecture.

In 2022, she joined the Agents of Change civic engagement school. This is one of the areas of work of the Junior Academy of Sciences. Here, teenagers who implement their own projects to make the country and society better are called agents of change. At this school, Tetiana created the Paws in Palms project — she exhibited and sold her paintings to help a dog shelter.

When I applied to the Agents of Change School, I already knew that my project would definitely be related to animals. A year before, I had got a dog — a Shar Pei named Bucks. During the year, he got sick a lot. And when the war began, I thought about the following: we help him because he has us. But some animals have no one. I really wanted to help them.

So I organised a charity exhibition at the branch of the city library. I just needed help finding contacts and then hanging the paintings. And everything else was done by myself.

Most of the paintings at the exhibition were mine, but some were provided by friends. There were still lifes, landscapes and animals. I love working with oil paints the most, so the paintings were painted in oil.

We sold 8 works at the exhibition. The most expensive one was a painting by my friend Mariia Kadurina called ‘Venice during the holiday.’ It’s a bright, large, very positive painting.

Among the sold works was mine, with birches — my mom’s favourite painting. Of course, it was hard to give it away. But when I arrived at the shelter, I realised I was ready to give away all my paintings for this. It was incredible! Firstly, the understanding that I was helping. And secondly, these paintings would be kept somewhere on the balcony, but this way they brought joy to people.

At that time, I helped the True Friend public organisation shelter. It’s a small shelter for dogs. With the money collected from the paintings, my mom and I bought cereals, bowls, leashes, collars — various items at the request of the staff.

Honestly, before I got a dog, I hadn’t been interested in stray animals at all. While I was working on the project, I visited the shelter for the first time.

The dogs there are very friendly! They run around both in their enclosures and outside. Several dogs greeted us right away. They were so cheerful — jumping, playing, everything was interesting to them. It was cool.

And it was sad too… The girls who work there told us where these dogs had come from. I even cried because it touched me deeply.

In the future, I want to design a shelter and a clinic for animals. I hope I can bring this idea to life as soon as possible.”

It’s heartening that young Ukrainian scientists and activists are concerned about the fate of animals and the environment. 

Photos: Kyiv Zoo, Parks Australia (Commonwealth of Australia), Mongabay, All That’s Interesting

It all started with the smallest thing: it all started with ants. It also started with the fact that literally every day, almost from the day Darusia was born, I have paid and still pay a lot of attention to all living things. It was methodical: I wanted to give my child the opportunity to observe the world, not just consume it in a hurry. So before she could even walk well, Darusia was already tracking ants, leaning on the trunk of our old apple tree for safety.

At first, we watched together as the hard-working ant was eagerly carrying something to its home or simply fleeing from danger into the deep cracks of the thirsty ground, and then Darusia would hover over those cracks day after day without me to see at least one more.

We would admire when we were lucky enough to see ants in the mating season in late spring, with wings! That’s how I explained the miracle: they were brides. To tell you the truth, I didn’t know those facts about ant life until I had to explain it. I had to learn!

Darusia at the age of one (or even two) actually had no idea who brides were or that even ants could be brides, but never mind. As since then, and even at the age of five, she has been fascinated by the fuss of any ant swarm. Even without wings. And when we come across the winged ones once in a while, Darusia says that they are brides, mum. That’s how she explains it! And she still follows the ants — she moves her finger in front of them as if drawing a path.

She used to love it just as much when an ant climbed up her arm or down her leg. In those moments, however, I had to make sure that no one nearby lamented and shouted ‘Oh, my God’ to the child, actually instilling perhaps the greatest fear. I could not allow someone to so categorically destroy the trust in the world with which a child comes to know it and thanks to which she can feel its fullness now and always afterwards. This trust is so easy to frighten away! And parents have the ultimate power to control it — to support it or vice versa.

I must admit that it was a great effort for me not to rush to the child and immediately sweep that ant off her hand! No, no. You just have to be careful, daughter, just don’t make any sudden movements.

And then, receiving her mother’s approval, Dara literally froze, staring at the ant, falling in love with each of them. She looked at me to see if I was also fascinated, and then looked at the ants again; at me — at the ants; at me — and then quickly back at them, so as not to lose sight of them. She silently showed me with her index finger to keep silent and watched them climb again.

And later there were worms, snails, crickets, May beetles, frogs, fish, every bird, chicken or squirrel — it didn’t matter: absolutely every animal that Darusia had ever seen. Meanwhile, I just had to feed her curiosity. It’s not very difficult! But it is work. And as a result, there were even bees that tickled with their golden wings. Then I was already protesting! But Darusia finally told me to calm down and just not to wave my hands too much. Then it worked. Yes, to be fair, it doesn’t always work, but Darusia and I know that nothing bites, pecks or scratches just like that, so we don’t get angry with the animals. Оh! It happened, the child used to regularly come to Mrs mouse’s hole to ask how it was doing, even though I am terrified of rodents myself!

I can hardly even pick up a slug. Let alone a frog in my palm! But every time Darusia is willing to do this, I turn off my prejudices (if it’s safe) and then turn on her trust. Or should I say mine? I had it once, too.

For reasons of common sense, I explain that it is better not to take an unknown beetle for the sake of your safety and the safety of the unknown beetle, but also not to do it any harm. We have no right, just as we have no right to kill. And today Darusia is already asking why if you kill a person, you go to prison, but if you kill an animal, you don’t.

We have to pet the cat gently and peacefully so that it doesn’t hurt sometimes. You can feel pain, can’t you? Animals can, too, daughter. And you cannot grab the tail even out of great love, because even out of great love you can hurt them. Who better than parents to know this?

Until recently, Darusia dreamed of going to the circus — it was so interesting! She had been to the theatre twenty times, but never to the circus. And there is light music, acrobats, and bears walking on ropes, wow! I had to explain that animals are trained during rehearsals, which is cruel, unpleasant and painful; they, being hungry, are forced to do things that are completely unnatural for them for food for the entertainment of people who then sit in the stands and enjoy this violence. Do we want to be among those who sit in the stands? No? So we must refuse. We cannot and will not support this either with our presence or money.

If you don’t know the background, this universal Darusia’s love for animals may seem like some kind of unique innate gift on the Instagram reels. And it would be convenient to think so, but the truth is that one is not born with this knowledge. No value comes out of nowhere, not a single one. Any value has to be formed — and I am here to do it as a mother. And also to guide them gently through life, without projecting my fears or imposing categorical views. 

For instance, I am less sceptical that Darusia, with her already-formed empathy, could potentially refuse to eat meat, poultry and fish. We are a traditional Galician family with a certain cult of food. None of us are vegan or vegetarian yet, but at the age of five, the child explains out of love that she will not eat a rabbit because the rabbit wants to live. And the fish? And the fish must swim, of course, mum! And, anticipating your question: I’m not going to force her to do that.

And yesterday, when we were leaving kindergarten, the mother rushed to catch a butterfly for her children in the grass, but instead of being happy, Darusia started crying a lot, until I convincingly assured her that I would never do that again, honestly!

I was so ashamed.

I don’t think anyone in my life has taught me more than my children.

Yulia’s photo was taken by Halyna Kuchmanych

“…I remember he was small because we put him in my small backpack. He was sitting there drooling, maybe he was hungry. We brought him home, and he peed like all little puppies. He cried a lot the first night. We made him a separate place on the floor, but then we took him into our bed. And he calmed down. He was very emotional.”

Yulia from Kharkiv remembers her dog. His name was Tymchyk. He hated fireworks, shed a lot and could hardly tolerate car rides.

When the full-scale war broke out in Kharkiv, they had to leave. Combat actions are not limited to one day, like fireworks on New Year’s Eve.

The family stopped in Kremenchuk and stayed in an apartment not very suitable for living. But they were happy they got out. And that they were together. All of them. With the dog.

“You must take the dog with you. Any animal, you must. A dog is a part of the home. When you take your dog with you, a part of the home goes with you,” Yulia recalls.

And then Tymchyk got sick and died. The family’s memories are tightly intertwined with a sense of guilt.

“I think the move affected his health. Moreover, he picked up a tick, and we didn’t notice and treat it in time. We are guilty too. Because we missed it, he got very sick. We barely saved him then. But there were still consequences for his health, from which, in fact, he got sick again and died,” Yulia recounts.

Guilt is what weighs heavily on the loss of a pet. And it’s something that almost all grieving caretakers remember.

Ruslana lost her cat, Pyrizhok, a few months ago. He was often ill, but then the worsening of his condition came like a bolt from the blue. The girl assumes that anesthesia during dental cleaning triggered a pancreatitis flare-up.

“I still haven’t come to terms with it. I have so many questions. I think only a professional psychologist can help me overcome this. It was not just the doctors who made the decision. In many ways, it was my responsibility, and I often wonder if I have made a mistake somewhere. Yes, we all make mistakes, but a mistake at the cost of an animal’s life is too much to bear,” she says.

The hardest part for Ruslana was the decision about euthanasia. While the cat was sick and in the hospital, he was getting worse. So the family was waiting for that very call. And one day it came.

“We were in the subway. They told us he couldn’t be kept suffering any longer. We went to the clinic, expecting to see an exhausted animal. He was lying down when we arrived, but then he got up. He recognised us. However, it was the effect of the medication, nothing more. It was time to make the hardest decision,” Ruslana recounts.

Due to the russian aggression, we lose animals in situations where we could supposedly save them. Our actions are limited by shelling, fuel shortages, conditions of extreme stress.

Journalist and blogger, known to readers as Yuri Koshmarchenko, wrote a lot and humorously about his pug named Agamemnon. Many people visited Yuri’s page to read about his dog. But in March 2022, Agamemnon died. Yuri couldn’t get him to the vet in time due to shelling and fuel shortages.

“I have thoughts that I could have gone to the vet earlier. Could have found fuel faster. Or a detour route (at one point, a bridge blew up right in front of our car). Or something else. It still hurts me because of this. I don’t know what to say. Just take care of your own ones. Whoever these ‘own ones’ may be,” he says.

Oksana Zinko, a psychotherapist, says that the feeling of guilt is one of the hardest experiences. It applies, of course, to the period after the death of an animal. This is a state in which people often get stuck in their grieving.

“This situation can be explained by the fact that there is a great responsibility on the person for the fate of the animal. And caretakers cannot forgive themselves for how everything turned out,” explains the psychotherapist.

Moreover, people who have lost a friend — a dog, cat or another animal — often don’t feel they are understood and supported as they wish. So how to cope with the loss of someone who became so dear to you?

The loss of a person or an animal is often not radically different.

According to Oksana Zinko, downplaying the significance of the loss of an animal and comparing it to the loss of a person are categorically unacceptable.

“Just like between a person and a person, a relationship is built between an animal and a person,” she explains. “And often animals give us something special: unconditional love and devotion. After the loss of an animal, its caretaker goes through the same stages of grieving as in the case of the death of a loved one. This includes denial, shock, guilt and depression.”

Yulia remembers that she felt the urge to return to the rituals of walks: “I even thought about posting ads saying that I would walk with any dog. And I replaced it with just walking. At first, I took a leash, put it in my backpack and walked to our, with Tymchyk, places. I sat on a bench, talked to him, remembered, cried. It lasted about a month.”

Yuri says that he even misses what used to annoy him: snoring, piles in the corners where there’s a risk of stepping into. But the most painful thing is that nobody welcomes him at home anymore: “At first, the absence of those jumps on my head hit me straight in the heart every time.”

Ruslana also speaks about this: “When you come home and no one welcomes you, you feel like it can’t be real.”

Often people don’t understand another person’s grieving for an animal. In particular, they compare this loss to the loss of material things. But Oksana Zinko explains: when we lose someone we had a close relationship with, we grieve for our own condition as well — for how we felt when our dog, cat, friend or father was alive.

How can you help yourself to cope with and accept the loss?

“The animal gave us a lot of love. And now we face a difficult task — to give some of that love to ourselves, to take care of ourselves,” notes Oksana Zinko.

She explains that there’s a classic dual model of grieving. What is its essence? We have to allow ourselves to grieve, to cry, to be angry at this injustice, regardless of other people’s thoughts or criticism.

Tymchyk’s former caretaker rightly points out: “If a person feels that this is a significant loss, they have to go through it. From the outside, it might have seemed that I was grieving too much. I remember our friends came over, and I burst into tears when I said ‘we explained to the little one that we buried Tima in the sand.’ I think it’s not necessary to pay attention to how people will perceive it from the outside.”

But at the same time, it’s important to help yourself with the desire to live.

“Explore new things, make new plans, talk to people. It’s normal if at some point you fall back into sadness and withdraw from active social life again. Your support should remain, or rather, be strengthened by your personal forms of support — the ability to rely on yourself,” explains Oksana Zinko.

It’s also helpful to find a community of people who have gone through similar experiences.

Yuri says that he has always received sincere support from others:

“I think this is one of the important traits of Ukrainians — the ability to appreciate any life. Pay attention: when we read about rescuing operations from under rubble after shelling, there is always information that so many people were rescued, as well as a cat, dog or a parrot. Every life is sacred. Ukrainians don’t even know this as much as they naturally feel it. But I felt it myself — with the sincere condolences of many people.”

Thematic groups, chats, a friend or an acquaintance who has experienced the loss of an animal as well — they will help you go through this path a bit easier, without getting stuck in a feeling of guilt. By the way, how not to get stuck in it?

Feelings of guilt often arise regardless of how and why the animal died.

“Many people feel regret and anger at themselves, even if they know deep down that they did everything possible to save the animal,” says the psychotherapist. “Of course, when a person faces a situation, they need time to accept what happened, to get over it, to grieve. However, guilt left unchecked can gradually destroy lives. We have a choice: to control these feelings and emotions or to allow them to control us.”

Ms. Oksana explains that feelings of guilt are not just emotions. Essentially, guilt is the belief that you have done something wrong and deserve to suffer for it. The only way to influence this belief is to change what we believe in. There are several options here.

Observe your feelings of guilt. Do you notice that you’re repeating the same guilty thoughts over and over again? Choose the “stop” signal to get off this painful mental path. It could be a physical action, like taking a deep breath and exhaling sharply. Then consciously focus on something else, like your plans for tomorrow. This way, you’ll remember that there is something positive ahead in your life, not just negative things from the past.

Choose the courage to accept what cannot be changed. Repenting of mistakes doesn’t change or compensate for the past. It just drives you into a dead end. The only thing you can change now is your future. Accept this fact.

Choose balance. Feelings of guilt make us focus on the times we perceive as failures — when we were “too busy” to walk, play with or hug our pet. Or when we couldn’t take them to the vet earlier, pay attention to symptoms of illness. This prevents us from objectively seeing all the other time we spent with our pet. So the next time your mind dives into these unhappy thoughts, decide to refocus. Actively remind yourself of the good times when you were a truly responsible and caring pet owner. Most likely, this was a significant part of the time.

How to help a person next to you grieving for the loss of an animal

“The worst thing that can happen is belittlement. If you don’t know how to support, it’s better to keep silent than to say that I ‘can just get another cat’,” says Ruslana.

If you want to support someone who is grieving and avoid saying the wrong things, it’s best to inquire about how they’re feeling.

“Our idea of how we can help sometimes differs significantly from what the person needs. Some people want to be alone. Someone needs to go to a place where they have spent special time with their pet, someone needs to talk. Allow them to express their needs. If we can’t help, it’s very important not to harm,” says Oksana Zinko.

The psychologist suggests a few universal words of support: “It must be very difficult”, “I can’t even imagine how hard it is to go through this.”

However, phrases like “I know how much it hurts” should be avoided. Because we can never fully feel another person’s pain. Everyone hurts differently.

The psychotherapist also advises being cautious with religious themes. Religion touches very deep values, so it can evoke strong emotions.

How to help a child comprehend the loss

“Tima died before our eyes,” recalls Yulia, “the little one was at home. He saw our reaction, but then he didn’t quite understand what was happening. He asked, and we explained to him what happened. We told him that Tima died and that Den (dad) buried him in the sand.”

Often, the death of a pet is the first death a child has encountered. And how adults help them through this can affect their future attitude toward death. The best thing you can do is to be honest with the child, says the psychotherapist.

“It’s important to explain in advance that every animal grows old and eventually dies. Tell your child the truth, but be careful. Never tell them about clouds or other fantasies. This creates distrust of parents and the world, which is very difficult to overcome later,” says Oksana Zinko. “When the pet’s death has already occurred, certain rituals can help say goodbye to the pet, cope with the loss and gradually accept it.”

When choosing a ritual, focus on what may resonate with your family. You can plant a tree in honour of the pet or write a farewell letter. Perhaps the ritual will be related to something important in the pet’s life.

“We cremated Pyrizhok and brought the urn home. Then we decided to scatter his ashes from the window. Pyrizhok adored windows, he could sit there for hours. It was a kind of feline Netflix. And we decided that such a farewell would be the most appropriate,” recalls Ruslana.

***

Soon after losing Pyrizhok, Ruslana’s family adopted a kitten from a shelter. The girl says it wasn’t she who saved him, but he saved her. Yulia isn’t ready for another dog yet, but she happily interacts with other dogs on the street, which somehow replaces the absence of Tymchyk for her.

It’s been a year without Agamemnon for Yuri, and he’s currently not ready to be responsible for another pet either.

Oksana Zinko explains that people choose different strategies: some immediately get another pet, while others close this question for themselves forever. There can be no universal answer here. Everyone has their own way of acceptance. But most importantly, it should bring peace to their souls.

“Everyone knows: if Briulik is somewhere, Pastor is also there!” says Den Babenko, the chaplain of the 107th Mariupol Battalion of the 109th Independent Brigade of the Territorial Defence Forces. The rule also applies vice versa: if there is Pastor somewhere, there is also a small Yorkshire terrier called Briulia there.

Den’s call sign is Pastor. He actually serves as a pastor of the Protestant denomination in his native Pokrovsk. Long before the full-scale war, he had opened a centre for people with drug and alcohol addiction there. In 2014, he founded the Misto Myloserdia (The City of Mercy) project, which fed the needy on the streets of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad. The project is still active today. Before the full-scale invasion, Den started organising a volunteer centre in Pokrovsk, and in the first days of the great war he joined the Territorial Defence Forces.

Now Den serves as a military chaplain. The military unit is stationed in Pokrovsk, and almost every day he drives to the frontline towns and villages to evacuate civilians. He often goes to the zero line to take out the wounded or deliver ammunition. Den organises donations for the purchase of bulletproof vests, cars, thermal imagers and transports all the necessary items to the frontline.

To tell us about his comrade Briulia, Den calls himself:

— I’m sorry I couldn’t talk yesterday. I had to take the wounded guys out at night, but I was not allowed to drive a car to the positions. They were taken out this morning.

— Did the dog travel with you?

— Yes. This is not just a dog — he is actually a friend, a warmate. Moreover, he is my personal psychologist. My combat Yorkie Briulia. He is 6 years old and he is my pet dog.

— If Briulia is a pet, why did you decide to take him with you?

— Due to circumstances. I knew that the russians would attack here. And I had no other thoughts than to take the family out. The worst thing that could happen was if they got to my family. Therefore, I sent my ex-wife and daughters to England, my wife and son — to Germany. I had no one to leave Briulia with. I could have sent him with my family, but we didn’t know what would happen at the border. Therefore, we decided that the dog would stay here.

I was afraid that the russians could get to my relatives, as I have been wanted in the “DPR” since 2015. They did not occupy Pokrovsk then, but their morons were here. When they came, there were only a few places in the town where Ukrainian flags hung. One of them was hanging over my church. They started calling me: they said, “Take it off, or we will set everything on fire.” About a week after they were expelled from Pokrovsk, I got a call, “Good afternoon, this is the ‘DPR’ prosecutor’s office. If you don’t come within three days, we will declare you as wanted.” I said, “Okay, then I will come with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

At first, I did not take Briulia to the army. My mother-in-law stayed here, and I took him to her like a little child: on Monday I took him to my mother-in-law’s house, and on Friday I took him for the weekend. Then we had the opportunity to rest at the military base on Saturday and Sunday. It went on like that for a couple of months, and then somehow I didn’t manage to take him to my mother-in-law’s place. He stayed with me for a week or two. And when I sent him to my mother-in-law again, after a while she called me and said, “Come and pick up your depressed dog. He does not eat or drink anything. Once he crawled under the sofa, he stays there.” When I arrived, he immediately started eating plain wheat porridge. He ate and got in the car. Since then, he has always been with me. We went to various cities: Bakhmut, Soledar, Lysychansk… 

There are a lot of abandoned animals in danger near the frontline. UAnimals evacuation team does a couple of trips a month to rescue them. You can help to save more animals!

I love him very much and would like him to be around.

— Where did he live with you?

— We lived on the base. I have various tasks: to go somewhere, pick up people, evacuate… And he is always with me! Always! When we are allowed, we spend the night at home in Pokrovsk.

— Has Briulia’s character changed during this time?

— He was calmer before the war. And in the conditions of war, he became a kind of master.

 — Does he chase cats?

— Now he does. He used to have a cat friend, but he died during the war. He chases all dogs, especially big ones. One day he got into trouble because of this. He was lucky that there was snow then. He ran up to the husky, and she kicked him with her paw — a knock! He fell into a pile of snow, and the big dog did not find him there. Otherwise, he would have been beaten.

Now Briulik got used to the military, he considers them as warmates. I had an incident… I was given a furlough, I came to Lviv and met my wife there. And so, Briulik was running towards her, and my wife called out, “Briulik!”, spreading her arms for a hug. And he ran past her. It turned out that two soldiers were standing behind her, and he was running towards them. The wife was offended, “Briulik, you are a traitor!” And I said, “No, no, no, he is a soldier now, he is running to his people.”

— Does he interfere with work?
— Imagine, this is the first time in history: he is preaching with me at the pulpit! He just lays down on the stage and waits for me to finish the sermon. He knows that he has to wait. You know what it is — a dog in the church. Everyone pays attention to him. I always say, “Hey, pay more attention to what I’m preaching, not to the dog!”

— Do you share the military meal or buy him food separately?
— He’s cool now. Over the past six months, he has had personal volunteers who send him food every Saturday. They also offered to sew military overalls for him. I say, “Don’t waste money, please, he won’t wear it!” He simply does not like to dress up, because he becomes a brake dog. You get him dressed, and he can barely move from paw to paw. He has one “coat” for the most severe frost: he more or less wears it. I don’t cut his hair now, and he has become so shaggy, shaggy. “You are a curly poodle,” I call him.

— Does Briulia somehow support you psychologically?

— Of course he does! Before the war, we lived one life, we were happy… Everything has changed. At least, I have seen my son since the beginning of the full-scale war, but not my daughters — only through video chat on Telegram. Sometimes, sad days come. And he understands that I’m sad.

When everyone was evacuated from Pokrovsk, I talked to him like to a person. I just told him about my pain and asked, “Do you understand?” And now I can sit opposite him and talk.

And sometimes I scold him. We get to the positions, somewhere where we can be fired upon, and I say, “You stay in the car.” And he jumps out. We don’t have time. I run, and he runs after me. We run into the basement, I shout at him, “Are you stupid? I told you to stay seated!” And he does not care: even though he is afraid, he still follows me.

— And how do other soldiers respond to such a small terrier on combat missions?

— He works for them as a psychologist too. Especially if I meet Yorkie fans, they are ready to tear me apart. They ask, “What does he eat?” I say, “Well, everything I do.” They say, “What are you doing, he can’t eat that!” They switch from the subject of war.    

Once we came to the boys of the 36th brigade near Avdiivka. And they call out, “Guys! Briulia has arrived!” They made a cartridge to hang on his collar. They presented it and said, “Look, Briulia, Patron doesn’t come here, with all due respect to Patron… And you are killing russians with marines near Avdiivka!”

The military is a lifesaver for animals. They always feed them… The Ukrainian army loves animals, the guys take them away from the positions.

— Does it happen that Briulia cheers you up?

— Always! This is a dog. Even though he is my friend, he remains a dog.

Every morning he lies down and watches until I open my eyes. As soon as I open them, he accelerates and jumps on me! He doesn’t calm down until he washes me off.

And once he saved me.

Once we had the task of bringing a full bus of ‘goodies’ to treat the russians. I was driving near Karlivka. It was just the two of us with Briulia. He started fussing, jumping off and on me… He had never done that before. I said, “Do you want to go outside? Let’s go.” I stopped, opened the door… And he ran out and sat down. I was already angry, “So, either you do your job or I’m leaving.” He sat for a while, then jumped back in and we drove off. And then a shelling from Grad system began in front of us: bang, bang! There were wounded people there. And if we hadn’t stopped… I turned to him and said, “I’m sorry, mate.”

— And where is he now?

— He is near me. Today they allowed me to spend the night at home and wash up. So we went to a coffee shop in Pokrovsk. Everyone knows him here.

By the way, let my warmates read about Briulik. At first, the deputy battalion commander was not happy when he saw him, “Oh, fighters with a dog, that’s all we need!” A week later, I come, and he brings me bones, “This is for Briulik.” Imagine that, he ate in the evening and thought about Briulik!

Disclaimer from UAnimals media: feeding a dog with bones is dangerous for the animal. Even more details about the proper nutrition of dogs are in our test.

Everyone in the battalion knows my dog. They say that he needs a combatant certificate!