“Can we climb up here?” I ask in the tone of a six-year-old child near the wooden stairs hidden in the crown of a pear tree.

“Sure, climb up,” says our guide, biologist Volodymyr Buchko. Hidden in the branches, there is a platform and a table with a bench. 

“I drink coffee here in the evening and watch animals come out into the open. There’s a ram over there and a deer…”

From the terrace on the pear tree, you can see the hilly western Ukrainian steppe, the Burshtyn Reservoir, and scattered thickets where deer, mouflons, and other animals hide from the heat. Kasova Hora Ecosystem Conservation and Restoration Center is located near the city of Halych in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, where Daniel of Galicia is a Ukrainian historical figure and the king of Rus’ (from 1253). He is described as an exceptionally gifted ruler, who built a number of cities (including Lviv), reformed the military forces, and brought European cultural influences to Ukraine. Adapted from: Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine.Daniel of Galicia once lived. Volodymyr appears to have as much right to be proud as the king, for his long-held ambition has come true here: Ukraine’s largest ungulate rehabilitation center, where animals recover and restore the steppe.

“Just mow it”

There is no entrance fee, but there is a donation box and a charity account. Right at the entrance, fallow deer are resting in the shade. They spot us and jump up. As we ascend higher, the chimneys of the Burshtyn TPP is a coal-fired power plant located in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Source: Wikipedia.Burshtyn TPP and the blue reservoir on the Hnyla Lypa River appear on the horizon.

The Gorgany Mountains stretch across the skyline. From Kasova Hora (hora means “mountain” in Ukrainian), you can see far into the distance. 

Where does the name Kasova come from? In Ukrainian, it means “cash register.” What could that possibly have to do with a mountain? Locals tell a story that Daniel of Galicia once hid his treasure in one of the many caves here. However, it is more likely that the name comes from the word kosovytsia (“haymaking”). And haymaking plays an important role here!

But even if the treasures are really here, there is also a more valuable and undiscovered treasure—a rare natural area.

Kasova Hora is the largest fragment of meadow steppe in the region. “This is the benchmark for the Western Ukrainian steppe. There are other areas like this one, but they are very small,” explains Volodymyr, confidently strolling through Kasova Hora in his Crocs. “The ecosystem here is very rich. There are 380 species of vascular plants, more than 30 of which are listed in the The Red Book of Ukraine is an official national red list of the threatened animals, plants and fungi that are protected by the law in Ukraine. Source: Wikipedia. Red Book of Ukraine.”

Vsevolod Levytskyi, a nature conservation specialist of Shevchenko Scientific Society is a Ukrainian scientific society devoted to the promotion of scholarly research and publication, founded in 1873. Source: Wikipedia.Shevchenko Scientific Society in Lviv, was the first to want to protect this steppe. In 1936, he wrote a letter to the Metropolitan of Galicia and the Archbishop of Lviv, Andrey Sheptytsky is a priest and theologian of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church who served as the Metropolitan of Galicia and the Archbishop of Lviv from 1901 until his death in 1944. Source: Wikipedia.Andrey Sheptytsky, asking him for the land of Kasova Hora, which at that time belonged to the church. Scientists and representatives of the Greek Catholic Church gathered at a conference and jointly decided to create a nature reserve on Kasova Hora. However, World War II thwarted these plans. During the Soviet era, a nature reserve was created here after all. Initially, 7 hectares were protected, and since 1988, 65 hectares have been protected.

In other areas, people mowed hay. However, where the deer now graze, sheep were kept until the 1990s. Plowing was impossible here, as limestone and gypsum come to the surface, so a plow cannot pass. This is what saved this piece of the steppe from destruction.

In 2019, renowned botanist Yakiv Didukh visited Kasova Hora, Volodymyr recounts. He did not recognize it. The steppe had become extremely overgrown, leading to thickets and invasive species. Soon there would be nothing of value left in terms of nature conservation.

“I said we would preserve it,” recalls Volodymyr. “And Yakiv replied, ‘Take a scythe and just mow it.’” It was impossible to mow so much. That’s when I came up with the idea of creating a rehabilitation center for ungulates.

“So that they could graze and take care of the area?”

“Exactly!”

Teeth and horns vs. thickets

By eating trees and shrubs, ungulates preserve the steppe. Otherwise, the area becomes overgrown. Then, valuable species disappear, replaced by invasive species that are not characteristic of the steppe.

Volodymyr’s idea to bring ungulates to Kasova Hora was supported by IFAW, which financed the initial costs. Scientists organized an expedition there. Together, they created a project on how to manage the territory. In 2023, the Burshtyn City Council supported the project and leased the land to Volodymyr Buchko for 20 years so that the plan could be implemented under his leadership.

The restoration of an ecosystem to its original state is called rewilding. At Kasova Hora, this process was carried out by ungulates, or rather their teeth. Kasova Hora is a two-in-one project: the rehabilitation of ungulates that had previously lived in unsuitable conditions and the restoration of the steppe.

In addition, species that previously lived in Podillia is a historic region in Eastern Europe located in the west-central and southwestern parts of Ukraine and northeastern Moldova. Source: Wikipedia. Podillia are being returned to the wild here. This is a reintroduction.

Volodymyr, his wife—botanist Lesia Buchko— and one hired staff member work on the wide terrain. Volodymyr is presently serving in the military, thus he can only visit the reserve while on leave. It would be difficult to function without volunteers.

“UAnimals coordinates volunteers for us. And now I’ll show you how they’ve helped us!”

Volodymyr leads us to an area where cut bushes and trees are visible. This area has been cleared. Most of the branches and logs were removed by the volunteers. There are three such areas at Kasova Hora. Botanists have taken notes on them and will now monitor how the steppe gets restored in these places.

Volodymyr crouches down next to a gnawed sapling. “This tree has dried up, and that’s a good thing. Male European roe deer rubbed their antlers against it and stripped off all the bark. That’s why the tree died. We allow individual trees to grow, but if there are too many of them, the steppe becomes overgrown. If you cut down a tree, the undergrowth remains and continues to grow. But here, everything has been gnawed away, so it won’t grow anymore. In other words, roe deer regulate the ecosystem.”

Peter, Vasyl, and who else?

There is a roe deer in a small quarantine enclosure. However, this animal has not yet started working on the ecosystem. He looks like a small goat and runs to a bottle of milk to suck eagerly. “This is little Peter. He was found on Peter and Paul Day, so that’s what we named him,” says Lesia.

There are eleven roe deer at Kasova Hora. They were handed over from private keeping. “They all have the same story,” Volodymyr complains. “People come to the forest, see a baby roe deer, and take it home. The deer grows up and starts eating everything. And then we are asked to take it away, as soon as possible. No matter how much you explain that you can’t take babies from the forest, people still can’t resist doing it!”

In the neighboring enclosure, Vasyl, a deer from Boryspil, was also brought from private keeping. Right now, the deer is resting in the shade.

“Why is he in quarantine?” I ask.

“He got into a fight with another deer. We’ll release him soon. He’s actually phlegmatic and tame. When he was brought, he just stood there and didn’t want to leave the cage. To get him to walk out, you had to push him from behind. He’s terrified of machinery. Maybe he was in some kind of accident.”

The rest of the animals roam Kasova Hora wherever they want. However, the area itself is limited, covering just 23 hectares. This is how much land Volodymyr has been able to fence off so far. The ungulates live here in conditions close to their natural ones. They hide from people, and it is not so easy to see the animals.

“Kids come here and say, ‘We want to see the animals,’” shares Volodymyr. “I always tell them that this isn’t a zoo. Wild animals live their own lives, but you can walk around and look for them. Maybe you’ll find them, but no one can guarantee you that. It’s a kind of quest in itself.’”

The ungulates to the foreground  

I love quests, so we continue on our way. Ahead, a reddish, curious head peeks out from the grass. It is a female Przewalski’s horse.

She was the first resident of the center and settled here with the help of UAnimals. She used to live in the former hunting residence of Ukraine’s ex-president, Viktor Yanukovych is the fourth president of Ukraine, from 2010 to 2014. Yanukovych was removed from the presidency during the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, which followed months of protests against him. Since then, he has lived in exile in russia. Source: Wikipedia.Viktor Yanukovych. There is now a recreation park there. 

The animal had a fiery temper, so in the spring of 2022, the staff decided to put her down. Concerned people intervened, and UAnimals joined to support the animal. The organization paid for sedation, veterinary care, and transportation of the animal to the Ivano-Frankivsk region. She lived for another year at the stadium in the city of Burshtyn, as there was no enclosure yet for her at Kasova Hora.

Her neighbors are a herd of nine northern spotted deer that used to live in the Lviv region in a cramped enclosure of a recreation center. The place went bankrupt, and there was no one to take care of the animals. UAnimals, together with Volodymyr, transported them to Kasova Hora, where the deer now have incomparably more freedom. Later, one of the females gave birth to a fawn, so now there are ten animals in the herd. They share the vast territory of Kasova Hora with two other spotted deer, three European fallow deer, four mouflons, and eleven European roe deer.

The animals do not reproduce at the center, so during the mating season, males and females get separated. To do this, they are lured into a special enclosure with food. “They went in and moved in a circle. At one point, the whole herd came in, and I closed the door,“ explains Volodymyr. “The male approached the edge, so I got him in a cage and released him in a different area.” 

The animals receive basic care. They are vaccinated and treated for ticks (after being lured into the enclosure, the herd gets sprinkled with powder that protects against parasites). In winter, they are given a bit of oats and corn. In summer, they are only given salt licks. Everything else is as it is in nature. 

Souslik’s comeback: How spotted ground squirrels get reintroduced

The tin fence glitters in the sun, almost hurting the eyes. “And this is a souslik’s nest,” Volodymyr explains.

Seventy years ago, Kasova Hora and the surrounding area were full of them. Ihor, an animal expert from a local village, said that sousliks lived in the area, and he used to chase them with his friends when he was a child. The spotted souslik is more widely known as the spotted ground squirrel (Spermophilus suslicus). In Ukraine, this species is on the verge of extinction.

People were deliberately eradicating spotted ground squirrels because they caused significant damage to farms and gardens. In addition, spotted ground squirrels need steppes and meadows to survive. These are also disappearing. Unplowed land is being plowed, resulting in fewer livestock to graze and clear the overgrowth. Just a little while later the species might have vanished from Ukraine entirely. Scientists are currently working to restore it, including here at Kasova Hora. UAnimals supported the entire spotted ground squirrel reintroduction initiative.

The spotted ground squirrels that settled at Kasova Hora came from the Lviv region. The area where they lived with others of their kind was partially plowed. Experts caught several animals there and relocated them to Kasova Hora.

The so-called nest of the spotted ground squirrels at Kasova Hora manifests as an area surrounded by a metal fence. In the center of it, there is a smaller mesh enclosure. The animals lived there for two weeks, getting used to their new home. Then this mini-enclosure was opened, and the spotted ground squirrels went to explore the half-hectare adaptation enclosure.

Won’t they dig under the fence? No, because the metal is 50 centimeters deep in the ground. There is also a camera there to observe how the animals are settling in. Soon, a camera with a greater zoom will be installed.

A ground spotted squirrel scurries through the grass, but unfortunately, I am too busy examining the camera. The burrows and tunnels are clearly visible, with sunflower husks scattered here and there. “They’ve eaten everything,” Volodymyr inspects. “We give them sunflower seeds, which are quite fatty. The animals need a lot of fat to survive the winter. In nature, they eat seeds and hunt for beetles: grasshoppers and locusts.“

The spotted ground squirrels have been living here since June 1. Later, they will leave this enclosure and live at Kasova Hora, wherever they like. Volodymyr and those involved in the project want the colony to grow to at least 500 animals. For now, these few are being protected from predators.

An electric fence has been installed around the enclosure for this purpose. “If a ferret or a fox comes along, it will sniff it, get shocked, and run away. And we have a scarecrow to scare away birds,” Volodymyr points out.

Even I am scared of this “man” as he moves eerily in the wind.

“I made it move on purpose. The ground spotted squirrel’s biggest enemy is the lesser spotted eagle. It will see a person and not attack. So this ‘man’ protects our colony well.” I take a picture of Volodymyr with the scarecrow. “You can call it ‘The Two on Guard for the Spotted Ground Squirrels.’”

Euphorbia volhynica is endemic to Eastern Europe (it grows only there and nowhere else in the world). It is also a relic, a plant that existed from prehistoric times, when nature was very different. It bears witness to earlier eras.

We encounter the pheasant’s eye (Adonis vernalis). Without the blossoms, it resembles dill. It’s also known as the yellow pheasant’s eye due to its vivid yellow color. The plant is used to produce heart medicine. However, you cannot use it to brew a cup of tea for yourself. It is toxic.

Here and there, Chamaecytisus podolicus grows. It is also a local endemic species that loves rocky slopes. It is protected by international nature conservation lists. The spiky fescue underfoot feels good to the touch.

We are in Opillia, the westernmost part of the region. During past geological eras, seas covered these highlands. Gypsum and limestone formed at the bottom, resulting in rocky slopes. These places were not cultivated, therefore they became relics (they were little affected by humans and preserved many species). These are the region’s richest ecosystems, with the greatest diversity of animal and plant species.

We climb to the top. It is windy. A Eurasian goshawk is hunting above us. From the observation tower, you can see how fragile this beauty is. Right behind the fence, soybeans grow thickly, corn is visible below, and the neighboring hill is covered in bushes. “There used to be steppe on that hill too,” Volodymyr points out. “But now it’s overgrown. Either it will be plowed up, or it will turn into low-value forest.” Such forests are not rich in terms of biodiversity. There are few species of plants and animals there.

We descended for a while through purple moor grass and eagle fern. These are undesirable species here. They are not characteristic of the steppe and grow densely, suppressing other plants. “We mow the fern, but it just grows back.” Dane weed and the European dewberry are also a nuisance. Hoofed animals do not eat everything. They avoid dane weed because it smells bad to them.

“This is a bad spot,” Volodymyr nods at the eagle fern and dewberry. “But these slopes are great.” They are gray with feather grass. Przewalski’s mare appears again and watches us with her shiny dark eyes.

Beyond ungulates and spotted ground squirrels

We sit down near some piles of earth. They look as if a small excavator had been at work there. In fact, this is the work of the Podolian mole-rat (Spalax zemni). It is an endemic species, found only in the region of  Podillia. It is truly blind. Its eyes shrunk because it does not need them, as it lives underground. According to a local legend, when the mole asked God to give him sight, God ordered it to dig as many piles of earth as there are stars in the sky.

Instead, the Podolian mole-rat has long incisors, which it uses to gnaw passages in the ground. It eats the underground parts of plants. It lives alone and only meets other mole-rats to reproduce.

At Kasova Hora, “the population has miraculously survived,” says Volodymyr. There is another one in the Mykolaiv region.

Among the mammals on the mountain, there is also a team of nine hares, all undergoing rehabilitation, from different parts of the country.

Where there are many plants, there are also many insects. A rare purple bumblebee lives at Kasova Hora—the splay-footed carpenter bee (Xylocopa valga). The female builds containers from pollen for each of her eggs. At the bottom of the hill, there are wooden houses ready to welcome this rare insect.

In addition to bees, Kasova Mountain is home to the Ukraine bright bush-cricket (Poecilimon ukrainicus), which is a wingless grasshopper. Only a few individuals remain in nature due to the disappearance of the steppes. Therefore, it is listed in the Red Books of Ukraine and Poland.

Another wingless grasshopper is the predatory bush-cricket (Saga pedo). They are a girls-only club. Males exist in nature, but they are extremely rare. Reproduction occurs without their participation. New insects develop from eggs without fertilization. This type of reproduction is called parthenogenesis. Grasshoppers are predators, catching other insects from ambush.

We wander through the grass to the wild apple. Finally, a bit of shade! Volodymyr searches the ground for a ripe apple, but there is nothing there. Finally, he picks one from a branch.

“You see, the ungulates eat everything. The apples are tart, but they like them. A badger also comes here to eat. He used to live in abundance here, but poachers constantly caught him. Now they can’t do it!”

In the collapsed slopes of the mountain, there are burrows of the European bee-eater, the sand martin, and wild bees. Volodymyr and an employee created one such place for birds by hand, using shovels. Birds have indeed settled there.

While I am looking at the feather grass, I am called down to another solitary tree. It turns out that there is also a cave there. “This is the cave of the peacock butterfly. They hibernate there, and lots of them gather here,” says Volodymyr, settling down in the shade.

The peacock butterfly is a red butterfly known to all of us, and its Latin name is Aglais io, in honor of the beautiful Io, one of Zeus’s lovers.

A camera trap is hidden in the crown of a wild pear tree to monitor which birds fly here. Magpies, great grey shrikes, Eurasian goshawks, lesser spotted eagles, and thrushes are captured on camera.

Another observation point is located on a different pear tree. We climb a wooden ladder to a small terrace right in the crown of the wild pear tree. For Volodymyr, this is also a place for coffee and reflection.

Brainstorming on a tree

“There’s plenty of work to do,” says Volodymyr, leaning back on a bench where a pleasant breeze finally cools the heat. “Right now, I’m building a field kitchen for volunteers. You know, the kind with big frying pans so you can cook potatoes, just like at home.”

The man plans to set up an enclosure for animals that live in water. There have already been four cases where rescued otters could have been settled at Kasova Hora. However, there was no space, and the otters had to be sent elsewhere.

However, the main difficulty is to fence off the other areas of the plot.  Volodymyr currently leases 71 hectares of property, 23 of which have already been secured with a fence. If the same is done in other sections, males can be separated from females during mating season, and animals that cannot live together in a single enclosure, even if it is huge, can be allowed. “Someone asked me to take the red deer, but I couldn’t. He would attack everyone up here.”

By fencing off the second plot, according to the plan, the center will be able to accept another 50 ungulates.

“Everyone benefits from the existence of the center here. The community benefits because I preserve degraded land and pay land tax. And I am happy because it was my dream,” says Volodymyr.

Nowadays, tourists visit Kasova, and distinguished guests come here. However, not everyone is satisfied. Some people really want to see the animals, but this is not always possible. The animals do not sit around waiting for visitors.

School kids also come here. The local schools have introduced outdoor lessons at Kasova Hora for various grades, starting with the 6th grade. “First, we have a tour, then we sit down and talk with the children,” says Volodymyr. “We teach them to be compassionate towards wild animals. We show them how animals should live. Wild animals should live in the wild.”

Olena is described to me as a military woman who is “crazy about animals”. “She used to serve in our unit, and she always had animals with her. She took a lot of them home to Kyiv,” her brother-in-arms tells me. When I contact her, I am filled with surprise. It turns out that she is the Olena Bilozerska, who has been inspiring many with her bravery since 2014. Olena is a former journalist and a blogger. She first served as a sharpshooter in the The Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps was founded on July 17, 2014, as one of the volunteer battalions. It was created as a response to the rise of pro-russian separatism and the russian intervention in Donbas. (Adapted from Wikipedia)Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps. Later, she joined Ukraine’s Armed Forces after completing artillery training.

She loves poetry and painting, and she always has companion animals by her side. Many of them were rescued by the soldiers, and taken out of the war zone.

I spoke with Olena about the animals that accompany her on the front line and away from it.

Dogs on the front line

Are there any animals on the front line?

Yes, I have many stories about that. The most dramatic one is about a Cane Corso dog named Vasia. His human was part of the 503rd Separate Marine Battalion, where I was stationed at the time. The dog accompanied this guy everywhere, even in the trenches on duty. The dog even carried some stuff. One day, Vasia vanished. Soldiers were searching for him. They raised the drone and discovered something they’d rather not see. Vasia got into a trap. He became entangled in the wire near the trenches. It was nearly impossible to save him since you couldn’t slip in unnoticed. The recon guys were planning to evacuate the dog at night, but they did not manage to do it…

Because Vasia came back! He chewed off his paw and ran back on his three. He did not want to stay in captivity. He was sent to his human’s parents, and then I made Vasia famous by writing about his fate. His story got a lot of publicity, everyone admired him. Eventually, he received treatment and a prosthetic at the best clinic in Poland.

Does it happen that animals help you in combat missions?

In the fall of 2014, an old dog came to us in the village of Vodiane near the Donetsk airport. He went with our recon group on all the trips to the gray zone. Of course, we didn’t want to take the dog with us, so we shushed him away. He ran away at first, but then somehow knew which way we were going and waited for us at some crossroads. This dog ended up helping us a lot. He ran 20 meters ahead of the group and removed the tripwires. A human would have been, at the very least, seriously injured, but the dog was fine, because he is short compared to a human and runs fast. When he heard the “pop” of the detonator capsule, he managed to escape from the area hit by the debris 3-4 seconds before the explosion. So everyone was safe, both people and the dog.

How Efka was exchanged for F-1 grenades

You have a lot of photos of a red puppy. What’s the story here?

That’s Efka, the Belgian Shepherd mix. My friend and I found her beneath a kiosk along the highway in the summer of 2016. The guys named her Efka because when she was a small, round puppy, she resembled an F-1 grenade in her body form.

She went with us to the battlefield and was wounded. We rescued her as we would a wounded soldier. We drove her to the hospital at night, got a vet out of bed, took care of her, changed her bandages, and gave her injections… When I went on military duty, Efka had to be on a leash so that she wouldn’t run after me.

One day I was lying sick at our base near Mariupol, and my husband left early in the morning to go to another city to run some errands. Efka followed him to the bus stop. There he got on the bus and left, and she stayed there. He was sure that she would return to the base by herself.

By the next morning, she was gone. My husband and I went to that bus stop, asked people, put up posters — half the city was covered with them. We bought a battery-powered loudspeaker to drive around in the car and play announcements about our missing Efka… She was found three days later. Realizing that she was not going to get home, she followed people in military uniform and came with them to the military base of the Azov brigade. They left her there, and then they saw the poster and brought her. Of course, they didn’t want any money, but I gave them a few F-1 grenades for taking care of my Efka.

The silver one, the whiny one and the artillery one

And what about your relationship with cats?

The very first cat I had was called Vatnik, also called Komochok or Komtsia, a black kitten with a short broken tail. He was named Vatnik because in 2014, all the animals picked up in the Donetsk region were named either “Separ” refers to russian separatist troops in Ukraine, namely in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. They were also known as russian proxy forces. This term carries a negative meaning and is commonly used to convey outrage, condemnation, or disapproval. (Adapted from Wikipedia)Separ or The word "Vatnik" refers to avid supporters of russian propaganda. (Adapted from Wikipedia)Vatnik. He arrived at the rear base and then accompanied me everywhere, including several advance bases (a few kilometers from the front line). When I went on military missions, he remained at these bases. He didn’t want to let me leave. When he noticed me getting ready to go, he grabbed my legs and yelled. When we were under fire, he’d drag me to safety by my leg. He went with me through many very dangerous places, but died on peaceful territory. He died after catching a poisoned rat. The rest of my pets are luckily still alive. 

A few months after Efka, Silver, a kitten of the Neva Masquerade breed, appeared. A soldier found him somewhere, and we took him. He was a very smart cat, but he was also sick.

Another dog, Shkavulik, grew up with the cat. In early December, a stray dog brought puppies to our basement. All nine of these puppies got sick with enteritis. On New Year’s Eve, my room at the base turned into a dog hospital. We managed to save only four of them. I decided to keep the smallest puppy.

I named him Shkavulik (in Ukrainian, “the whiny one”) since he was constantly crying pitifully. Shkavulik grew up with Silver, they adopted each other’s behaviors. Silver growled and tried to bark, Shkavulik chased after mice… And when other people’s cats came into the yard, the trio would chase them away. Efka and Shkavulik would chase the bird into a tree, and then Silver would climb up to deal with it.

All three of them, big Efka (weighing 30 kg), Shkavulik, and Silver, slept with me in my bed. There were rugs, but they wanted to sleep with me, and it was impossible to keep them away.

It was very difficult to feed them, because we were unpaid volunteers who did not have salaries. It got to the point where we had to take the other two dogs that came to our base and give them to other soldiers who lived better than we did.

Later, while I was an artillerywoman in the Ukrainian Marine Corps, I discovered a three-colored cat on a training site near Melitopol. I named him Busol (or Busia). Busol literally means “artillery compass”. She traveled with me to Exercise Sea Breeze, and there, American marines wanted to get her from me and take her to their ship. Busia is a Maine Coon mix. She weighs 6-7 kilograms. She’s also a really picky lady. She lets you pet her only when she wants to.

When the full-scale invasion exploded, the dogs, Efka and Shkavulik, were living with my father-in-law in the Cherkasy region. The cats, Silver, Busia and Kasia, were living at my home in Kyiv. I sent them to my father-in-law as well. When the war is over, I will take them back. In the meantime, they are growing up and getting older without me.

What do cats write in secret chats?

How do other soldiers behave towards your animals?

They are mostly animal lovers. However, there are people with different household habits. One of my now deceased brother-in-arms, for example, was a clean freak. We used to sleep on mattresses on the floor, and my dogs would go on those mattresses with their dirty paws after the rain. So many guys were grumbling about that, especially the one that loved cleaning. The animals and I even had to relocate to a different home. It was a risky maneuver because everything was taking place in a village on the front line that was frequently bombarded by the russian troops.

Do cats and dogs disrupt your work?

No, not in combat missions because we don’t take them directly into battle. And if they are in the trenches with us, they sneak away when it gets hot, as if they are not present. But when you work on a laptop, not even the greatest cat bed can match the excitement of a keyboard for cats. Their life revolves around lying on the keyboard. No amount of treats will distract them from their laptop. They don’t just lie there; they type messages in secret military chats, such as “trrrrrrrr” and “aaaaaa”.

When the commander reads this, he asks, “Have you been drinking there, or what?”. And among those reading this, there will definitely be a soldier who knows what’s going on. He will write plainly, “That’s the cat”.

I have also stories of cats running somewhere at night, and you take your rifle with a thermal imaging scope and go “hunting” for your own cat.

Can an animal somehow improve your mood or the mood of the people around you?

Oh, they’re experts at this Simply petting a cat or a dog makes you feel better. You kiss the fluffy one or the plushie-looking one on the forehead, one of them licks you, and you feel like you have something to live for.

A woman in a uniform gets out of a car. “You are early,” she says to me. She’s got soft features but looks confident and even strict. Meet Pilla Osborn, a dog behaviorist and the chief administrator at an animal shelter in the city of Tartu, Estonia. 

You can’t hear barking in the parking lot, as it would be in Ukraine. You can’t really tell that there are dogs’ enclosures behind the fence. The entrance is a clean glass door. To get inside, one has to call the administrator first. Usually, Pilla comes and brings a guest inside the shelter. 

Don’t you think that it’s easy to get an animal if you come to adopt! First, you have to pass Pilla’s test. 

Pilla Osborn told UAnimals media about the life of Estonian shelters, whether they rely on charitable donations, and how cat Tikku found a new family. She also explained why it’s not always easy to take good photos with friendly cats and what you need to do to adopt an animal from an Estonian shelter.

Stray animals in Estonia: 3 animal catchers for half of a country 

Is there a problem with stray animals in Estonia? 

Not so much with dogs. Most dogs have their people. Right now, basically, all the dogs in our shelter came from their owners, who gave them to us. But there is a problem with cats. We are doing a lot of spaying here, and we promote spaying and neutering. But we don’t see any dropping of levels that way. Somehow there are still cats wandering in the fields, countryside, bringing tons of young ones. All these animals end up here.

Who brings cats to the shelter? 

People are calling us when there is a situation. These cats are not friendly. If they get feral for a couple of generations, people usually can’t catch them. This is an animal catcher’s job. 

We use the traps for that. We haven’t used an animal capture gun for 7 years for sure. The gun works with dogs. You can’t use it with cats. Besides, we need to have a veterinarian. You have to guess the dog’s weight to know how much medication to put in that gun. The animal is far away from you. How much does it weigh? You can approximate, but you can’t know for sure. So it’s a life-and-death situation. Maybe you hit the animal in the wrong place. Maybe you put in too much of that medication. Because of that, we don’t use it at all. We do have one gun here, though.

What happens after you receive a call? 

We want to know everything from the person who called us: When they saw the animal, how often, and where the animal usually goes. That is so we can plan out catching ways or time. 

So animal catchers go on long trips to cover several places at once?

Yes, exactly. We have a schedule for that. Earlier calls get responded to earlier, and so on. The catchers work every day, and not just in Tartu. Every county needs to deal with the problem of stray animals, so they need to hire some shelter to do the work for them. Our shelter is prominent in Tartu County, but we are hired by half of the counties in Estonia. We have 3 catchers.

3 catchers for half of Estonia?

Exactly! We plan a lot. Even if the animal catcher is in a faraway county, we need to cover Tartu city first. We must respond to Tartu city calls in one hour because we have a contract with the city. 

Shelters in Estonia: How Do They Work?  

What happens to a cat when it comes to the shelter?

First, we have to see if the animal has a microchip. If so, we can call the owner immediately. They can come to pick the cat up. In Estonia, we can’t have any animals walking outside by themselves. If that is the case, we need to talk with the owner. That would be the best situation. 

If there’s no chip, we take pictures. We put it up on our webpage, and for the first 14 days, we need to wait for the previous owner to notice that animal on our webpage. By law, we need to keep the animal here for 14 days. 

A cat lives in a cage. Cats need to feel that no other cat can come into their territory. But the territory is small. It’s just that cage.

After 14 days, the cortisol levels are dropping. Cats get used to a cage life and surroundings, so they are not acting in defensive aggression. 

We have different rooms for cats. At first, they are in a quarantine room. If the cat doesn’t have a microchip, a veterinarian comes here and does the procedures: vaccinations, dewormer, and flea medication. After 14 days, if the cat is friendly and happy, it goes to get spaying/neutering in the clinic. 

The clinic needs to make sure that the cat doesn’t have FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus), which is like HIV for people. For that, they are taking blood. 

If the animal has FIV, this means euthanasia. Lots of stray cats in Estonia have that. Cats get it through bites in catfights. We don’t have any cure for that. On average a cat lives 6 to 7 years after that bite. It’s contagious to other cats. When the disease progresses, organs shut down one by one. With the blood test, you can say if it has it, but you can’t say how long it has had it. Before everything goes bad, we think it’s humane to do euthanasia.

If the cat doesn’t have the disease, we come and collect it. Then the animal is waiting for adoption. 

Dogs that had an owner, do not need all the veterinary procedures. The only thing is that we still have to wait 14 days, and then the dog can live in a shelter in a kennel until possible adoption. We have volunteers coming to walk the dogs. There’s volunteer schooling once a month.

How many animals are there in the shelter now?

Right now, we have 33 dogs, and the cats … exactly 100. So that’s 133 animals.

Is your shelter considered to be small or big in Estonia? 

I have no idea about other shelters. We are very transparent, but I know shelters that don’t even let you in. It’s hard to get the information. 

Who owns the shelter? 

Tartu City does. This is a municipal shelter.

Are there private shelters in Estonia?

There are some private shelters popping up here and there. People are trying to do the same thing we do in their living rooms. It’s not really in the law, what is a shelter and what isn’t. So any activist can start saving animals, hoping for donations. 

Was this place designed as a shelter?

Yes, it was. We have worked here since 2006. This building that we are in right now is a year old. Before that, we had a 4 square meters office here, which wasn’t built as a shelter. The city actually built that house.

Does a vet or a nurse work here?  

We have contracts with 2 veterinarians. One comes once a day. An animal caretaker from the shelter helps instead of a nurse. 

Do you receive donations?

We do need donations. The city does not pay for spaying and neutering. Donations are very important for veterinary care. My paycheck is from the government. The city needs to provide money for each animal for 14 days, and then we are all alone. This is when donations come in.

Who usually donates?

Ordinary people, who see our work and the passion that we are doing it with. 

Do you organize any fundraising campaigns? 

No, we feel really bad about it because everybody else is gathering money, mostly these independent pop-ups. They are also exploiting animals that are really sick. For example, an animal needs a heart transplant. It has to pull human strings. We believe that people are getting tired of all those “help me” things. So we try not to do that at all. We want to provide the best life for animals here, the best service to the community. We try to get specialists who want to learn more. So people see it all and donate with free will. And we try to make tomorrow a better day than yesterday was.

A Look Inside: Unneighbourly Dogs and Individualistic Cats

To get to the courtyard, we pass the staff room. The girls are having lunch, and next to them, there is a big red dog. They decided to give him some individual attention. He comes and licks me.

Each dog has a kennel in the yard. Pilla explains the nuances of choosing how to fit the dogs next to each other.

 “They live separately but the communication is still intense. So we have to see who fits next to whom.”

I know that time is of the essence here, so I move quickly. At one point, I start running with a camera to take a picture of a dog.

“Never, never run in a shelter!” Pilla stops me sternly.

Next, we go to the cat house. There are two rooms: one with larger cages and another with smaller cages. The one with the smaller cages houses cats following surgery. The other features a larger two-story residence.  

“Each cage is divided into two floors. Upstairs is the space for living and resting, and downstairs is the kitchen and the toilet in the other corner. Although the cage is relatively small, the cat feels safe, because no other cat will enter the territory. Only one cage is cleaned at a time. The cat is out for a little walk through the room. Usually, the cats jump on the windowsill and watch what the dogs are doing outside.”

Each cage has a card with a name and different markings. “On a diet” is written on one.

“Each card has a number on it. It’s an animal’s serial number. It indicates when the animal came to the shelter. We also often write ‘reserved’ here. It means that someone has already decided to take the animal home.”

I try to take pictures of the residents of the shelter in Tartu, but the cats turn away.

“The camera is like a big eye looking at them. So they can be uncomfortable. Friendly cats, shy cats would turn around and hide, but aggressive cats would stare at it and kind of attack it. So there are usually better pictures with aggressive cats.”

Next to the room with the cages, there is also a separate room with a cat den and photos of tigers on the walls. One or two cats who have been in the shelter the longest live here. The previous resident has just moved out, so now the next one is moving in, the one on a diet.

The kittens have a separate house. At the entrance, there is a sanitizer for both feet and hands. However, the kittens are not touched so that they do not catch diseases. On the wall, there is a board with kittens’ names and flags pinned to it. The kitty with the blue flag is sick, and the one with the yellow flag needs medication.

“I am a professional in dogs’ behavior,” Pilla says, “but I am an enthusiast in cat psychology. I am excited about them, and I even take work home! We have lots of kittens, and they are feral. I take kittens home to socialize them so they have individual attention, and I can turn them friendly so that they can find homes better. But I don’t get paid for that at all.”

How does your family react?

I have a dog and a cat. And I have a husband. My husband thought that he had not liked cats at all when we got married. That was 9 years ago. And now he is asking me, “Hey, which one are you bringing home tomorrow?” He is working from home. So I need to train him to train the kittens.

Tikku is leaving for a new home 

As we talk, an elderly couple comes to the office with a pet carrier. A big furry cat sits inside. 

Pilla makes some notes.

“This cat’s name is Tikku. He has been living with us for the longest time, since my birthday on November 26. He lived in a separate room.”

There were 2 outside cats in a summer home, Tikku and Takku. Both were brought here. People took them into an apartment. There they had a female cat. Catfights started happening because the people didn’t do the introduction perfectly. Fighting over the female cat, Takku got beaten up by Tikku, who’s a really big cat. The people didn’t want to deal with the fights. Today Tikku goes to a new home. The couple takes him. They have had cats before. It’s not their first visit here. If you want an animal, you have to come here multiple times to get to know each other.

Is that a rule?

Yes. From an animal’s point of view, it’s important. They haven’t been in your place, so it would be best if they knew you ahead. In that way they have a comfort person already. That is animal psychology that we are learning a lot about.

How does it work if someone wants to adopt an animal?

They come on visiting hours and tell us what cat or dog they are interested in. I’m walking with every person so I can read their energy and the animal’s energy and say if it is a good or a bad idea. I want to know everything about them. We can ask if they want an outside cat. Then we can say, “I’m sorry, we don’t give cats outside. It works the other way: We are taking cats from the streets.” I ask if they have other animals at home. There are some cats who don’t tolerate any other animals. They think they are the only cat on Earth. Maybe that cat is not right for you then. Do you have little kids at home? What is your daily schedule? How much time can you have with this animal? How can you help this animal to socialize better? When we put up dogs for adoption, sometimes there are several candidates. We even decide who will take the dog. It’s a lot of paperwork. But with cats, there’s nothing like that. Many people don’t want to deal with problems and just bring them back.                  

Does it happen that people return animals?

Exactly, for whatever reason. Taking an animal is not a fairytale. You need to go to the dog school. You need to be financially in a good place. You need to think about 15 years of the dog’s life being with you, not just take this puppy at random. Or giving animals as gifts. We don’t approve of it here.

When you handed Tikku over, you crossed something out on a piece of paper over there, on the wall. It looks like a detective board! 

We do an advertisement on our webpage. We put pictures there, and Tikku’s picture had been there for the longest time. Since they have been there for so long, we promote them to get to new homes. We know more about them, and we make little stories about them. Maybe people can see something that pulls at their heartstrings and think, “This cat is for me.” I’m crossing over whoever goes home.

It seems to me that everyone is crossed out, right?

Not yet, but most of the cats are! 

The grumpy hen Baba Zina, the dogs Romka and Hraf, Mike and Gina, the pig Dusia, and the goat Marta live in shelters or with families across Ukraine. Most likely, these, and thousands of others, animals would not have survived if they hadn’t been taken in, evacuated, or treated in time by the people honored by UAnimals at the Animal Protection Award. 

These people experience every layer of society’s attitude toward animals on a daily basis. They know how often indifference is intertwined with compassion in the story of an animal.

We asked them about the moments that left the strongest impressions on them, and here’s what they’ve told us.

“No one expected he would survive” 

Anastasiia Klimniuk, the founder and the head of Animal House Rescue NGO

Kharkiv/Poltava region

This memory is from February 26, 2022. Animal food was hard to come by in Kharkiv. You couldn’t buy natural food, and all pet stores were closed. A warehouse with pet supplies opened in a garage. We were in a queue for dog food with 60 other people. It was a moment I’ll never forget. A man approached us with a cat in a carrier. His house had been destroyed, his wife had evacuated. He decided to go defend the country and had nowhere to leave the cat. He asked the people if anyone could take the cat in. No one responded. My husband and I exchanged glances and almost instantly decided to take the cat. That’s how we started taking in animals.

Later, we found out that the cat belonged to that man’s son. He and his wife had just had a baby, who was just two weeks old when the war began. So they decided to leave the cat with the grandparents for a month. When the man came to that line, the young parents were under russian occupation. Later, I received a message from them asking, “Do you still have our cat by any chance?” They sent me a photo of him as a kitten. So when we took him in, he was still very young. In 2022, the cat returned to his family.

There are examples of very caring attitudes toward animals in our area. Once, people saw a German shepherd lying near their yard. At first, they thought the dog was dead since he didn’t even move his ears. Eventually, they realized the dog was breathing. The people contacted us, and we took the animal to a veterinary clinic. There was very little hope of him surviving. The dog had no sensitivity in his body at all. An MRI showed a dislocation in his cervical spine.

When we picked the dog up at the clinic, he was already eating and going to the toilet on his own. The people who found him agreed to take in the dog with a disability and care for him. They named him Hraf. Now he can crawl, lie in a sphinx pose, and sit up for about 40 seconds, and he doesn’t need anyone’s help to eat. They built a wheelchair-like device so he is able to move around.

She fled on foot with a child and a puppy from shelling 

Olena Rusina, the head of Pegasus shelter

Malozakharyne, Dnipropetrovsk region

Recently, we were asked to go to a village because there was a large injured dog there. He had just appeared on the streets, even wearing a collar, but no one knew where he came from.

Local elderly women noticed him. These weren’t young people, skilled at using the Internet, yet they still tried to post his photo on social media to look for his family. The women even chipped in to buy parasite treatments for the dog.

We got a call after he got into a fight with another dog. We arrived and were met by these women, all with canes. These were civilized people who didn’t abandon the animal. They didn’t say, as often happens, “The dog’s lying around somewhere, go find him yourselves.” They followed our car, led us to the exact spot where the dog was. They cared for us, the volunteers. That was very heartwarming. The dog is still being treated and now lives at Pegasus shleter.

There was also a case when the offensive on Vovchansk began. Some people even fled on foot. A woman contacted us, asking if we could help provide shelter for a puppy. We didn’t want to, as our shelter was overcrowded. But it turned out this young woman was fleeing shelling on foot. She only took her child in a stroller. Just imagine the state she was in at that time! On the road, she saw a small, exhausted puppy. He was in the same circumstances as she was. The woman picked up the puppy and placed him at the bottom of the stroller! 

She made it to Dnipro, but didn’t abandon the puppy in the city. Then she contacted us, saying, “What do I do with a puppy and a child?” I posted the story on social media, and a family immediately responded and adopted the dog.

“Forgive me, Mike”

Serhii Ludenskyi, the founder and the head of Save Animals Ukraine NGO

Dnipro

Not long ago, I was asked to evacuate two Rottweilers from the frontline village of Oleksandropil in the Donetsk region. An elderly man was still living there, with a granddaughter waiting for him in Poland. The only issue was the dogs: two Rottweilers, 7-year-old Mike and 5-year-old Gina, lived in his yard. Traveling with such large dogs would have been difficult for the elderly man. It was because of them that he hadn’t left.

On the day of the evacuation, the elderly man arrived at his yard by bicycle. He had come from a small neighboring village, which was hit less often by artillery. A field behind his house was burning after a strike. All of this was happening under the thunderous sound of artillery.

The most heartbreaking moment was the man’s goodbye to his dogs. He hugged Mike’s head and said, “Forgive me, Mike. I have no choice.”

That video on my TikTok got a million views. I think many Ukrainians could relate to that pain.

We knew that Mike was aggressive. I had to climb onto the roof of the van and pull him up by the leash to get him inside.

The elderly man asked us to leave quickly, to avoid prolonging the goodbyes. So we did.

We brought the dogs to our shelter near Dnipro. It turned out that Mike was only aggressive toward other dogs. Both Rottweilers were soon taken in by lovely families. I’m very happy there are people who don’t abandon animals and others who are willing to take them in.

Two skeletons on chains

Tetiana Nelha, the founder of Zoofamily charity fund and shelter 

Pavlysh, Kirovohrad region

I always see both sides of the coin in how people treat animals, and it shocks me. I look at the soldiers, the rescuers who evacuate animals from combat zones while risking their own lives. They’re amazing. On the other hand, there are people in our area who don’t sterilize their pets, who cruelly dispose of puppies and kittens in trash bags at garbage dumps or in treelines. Some head into shelling to save animals; others kill them.

In our area there were people who would frequently leave their homes, abandoning their animals in chains and not feeding them. By law, we don’t have the right to enter someone else’s yard and take the animals. We had to push to get the police to go in with us and remove the dogs from their chains. These were already two skeletons. There’s currently an investigation against those people, so I can’t say more. I took the animals for treatment and rehabilitation at Zoofamily.

When a vet becomes an animal volunteer

Aliona Hrinnyk, the founder of Give a Paw YU NGO

Pivdennoukrainsk, Mykolaiv region

One day the phone rang, “Hello, I’m a veterinarian. I googled ‘volunteers Pivdennoukrainsk,’ and your number came up right away. I want to be useful, by giving advice at the very least.” It was Oleksandr Sokolov, who had relocated from Enerhodar. We met, and I immediately invited him to join our sterlization projects.

Before that, I had rented a house in the neighboring village of Kostiantynivka for animals to be housed temporarily. Well, calling it a house is generous; it was falling apart. There were walls, piles of trash, and grass up to our waists. My husband, my father, and I started fixing it up. People helped. Someone brought a bucket, someone brought a broom. A few volunteers came to clear weeds. We made sure the house was in order and set up a temporary place for animals to stay in. 

When Oleksandr arrived, with other volunteers, we chipped in to buy thread, anesthesia, and to set up an operating room. We began sterilizing stray cats and dogs there.

Time passed. I changed jobs, and our financial situation improved. We invested money, and in September 2024, we opened a clinic in the city.

There, we treat pets for a fee — to help strays, you need resources. Soldiers and internally displaced persons get discounts; some even get treatment free of charge. If an elderly woman comes with a pet, we treat it at a discount or free of charge. Plus, we do free spaying only of female cats so far. Our city has a shelter. By agreement, we operate on their dogs. Sometimes animals are brought in for treatment and we don’t charge for that. For strays under care of volunteers, we only charge the cost of materials.

We run campaigns for the free sterilization of strays. Our city is small, and there are more animals here than people. So we focus on sterilization. 

That village house now serves as a post-op recovery space and houses animals with disabilities. And Oleksandr Sokolov still works with me at the clinic.

“It wasn’t the shelling that killed them, it was hunger”

Alina Ostapenko, a member of Sumy Animal Home 

Sumy

I hardly remember life before the war. February 24, 2022, was a turning point in my mind. That’s when my real test as an animal rights defender began. It seemed that after the liberation of the Sumy region, life should have gotten easier, but then came the shelling of border areas and mandatory evacuations.

A year ago, in Yunakivka, a border village in the Sumy region, a local woman found eight dead dogs in different yards. It wasn’t the shelling that killed them, it was hunger. Most of the animals remained chained up until they died, unable to find even a scrap of food. All of them had been left there by people.

We had to go there to save the chained-up animals. On our first trip to the border area, we evacuated two dogs, Bruno and Alex, from Yunakivka.

Bruno’s survival was nothing but a miracle. We found him tied up in a yard where two other dogs already lay lifeless. Alex survived by eating raw corn.

After Alex and Bruno, we evacuated around 15 more dogs from Yunakivka.

Bruno is now at the shelter, and we’re still looking for a home for him. Alex found a loving family last year.

After meeting these dogs, we began actively evacuating animals from the border areas. Few people wanted to go to the villages of the Sumy region, so I decided to learn how to drive. That’s how a new chapter of spending weeks in remote shelled corners of the region began. Sadly, we couldn’t save them all.

In three years, we’ve found homes for about a thousand animals. No more abandoned animals is the result I strive for.

Neighbors so unalike

Olha Volkova, the head of Soul of a Tramp shelter 

Lupareve, Mykolaiv region 

This happened in the village of Lymany, before my trip to the Animal Protection Award. There, one woman poisoned about 20 dogs.

An acquaintance came to me and said, “Imagine, Olia, while you’re saving animals, this woman asked me, ‘Are you going to the city? Then buy me some rat poison, I didn’t have enough. I’ll poison the dogs.’” When I heard that, I went to the village. But the dogs were already dead, I couldn’t do anything. I saw the woman who poisoned them. I asked if she didn’t feel sorry for the dogs. She replied, “No. I poisoned them, and I’ll keep poisoning them.”

Olha has passed her testimony to the legal department of UAnimals and hopes to bring that woman to justice.

Roman Oleksandrovych, Baba Zina, Dusia, and the others

Viktoriia Zhydkova, the founder of Virnist animal protection society and of Human Rights Initiative NGO

Dobropillia, Donetsk region

In August 2019, my husband went to take out the trash. There was a bag with puppies in the dumpster. Only one was still alive, it was just two hours old. That’s when our fight for its life began. My husband made a special box for the puppy, basically, an artificial mom. We fed it by the clock, woke up at night. One time, my husband suddenly yelled, “Come here!” I thought something bad had happened. I came over and the puppy had opened the eyes. I’ve never seen my husband so happy. And now that dog is our famous Roman Oleksandrovych. Little Roma.

Another real act of humanity was when a whole chain of kindness worked together to rescue a farm in Udachne. I’m a vegetarian, and it was essential to me to save the farm, not to slaughter the animals. I wanted to create a shelter that would take in farm animals, and I shared the idea on social media.

That’s when a man from Udachne called me. He had a small farm. I must’ve asked him ten times, “Are you going to eat the animals?” He said no, and that their goose was 15 years old, the goats were 17…

Many people were involved in the farm’s evacuation. And now the animals from Udachne live at my shelter. We have Dusia the pig, who gives you her paw. There’s Marta the goat, she always greets you, bleats in her own way, and stretches out her front leg. There’s a chicken we call Baba Zina because she’s always grumpy. The moment you walk into the coop, she clucks as if to say, “You’re walking wrong, standing wrong, doing everything wrong.” Her beak won’t ever close. 

Kolia and the puppies 

Inna Borodulia — founder and the head of Happy Cat CSO

Zaporizhzhia

I work closely with a soldier named Slavik. He has evacuated a large number of animals and finds people to take them out of the combat zone. He pays for sterilization and treatment out of his own pocket. I’m actually about to head out to vaccinate puppies where he’s stationed. I’d love to take them all to the shelter, but that’s just not possible. To me, he’s a human with a capital H.

But I have another hero. Kolia, a tall, easy-going guy who works at a factory. Honestly, at first, I thought he wasn’t the brightest. But things aren’t always what they seem at first glance. The summer before last, Kolia found newborn puppies in a dumpster. Not afraid of the challenge, he took them in and raised them. All by himself! And this while working shifts at a demanding job! Every one of those puppies survived. He found homes for them all and kept one for himself. Ever since, I tell him, “Kolia, you’re my hero.”

***

After receiving their awards, the winners of the Animal Protection Award are quick to step out of the spotlight and return to their animals. At home, they change back into work clothes and roll up their sleeves. For three years of full-scale war, these people have been taking in dogs and cats, farm and wild animals, those evacuated from the front line or nearby areas, and sometimes they evacuate them on their own. That’s hundreds, sometimes thousands, of new animals each year. Animals keep arriving because the war continues. However, we can at least make sure these animal defenders don’t have even more work because of abandoned and mistreated pets left behind in safer regions of Ukraine.

Veterinarian Andrew Kushnir sits in the lobby of a Kyiv hotel with a huge yellow backpack and several bags. “You never know what to bring to Ukraine; you might need anything,” he shrugs.

Andrew has long lived out of a suitcase. He volunteered at a shelter in India before he even studied to become a veterinarian, and while studying, he herded buffaloes in Zakarpattia during breaks. He spent several months at wildlife centers in Costa Rica. After our meeting in Kyiv, Andrew visited Kherson on a spay/neuter mission and has already returned to the United States to operate on an injured alligator and a snake that swallowed a golf ball.

Andrew travels the world, moving from one project to another. But he visits Ukraine most often, as his family originates from here.

A surgeon in animal shelters; an amateur musician who plays the bandura; a volunteer who sails to African islands to treat the livestock of local residents… And this all describes one person. It’s no wonder I didn’t want to miss the moment when Andrew was still sitting among his packed bags in a Kyiv hotel.

Andrew or Andriy?

We could stay at the hotel, but Andrew is restless: we set off for a café, but the central streets are closed, and the journey along the hilly right bank of the Dnipro in Kyiv takes almost an hour. It seems I grew more tired during this time than he did. We spoke in Ukrainian all the way, and upon arrival, we switched to English.

You’ve just arrived in Kyiv. Where have you been before you came here? 

I was in Lviv at the Home of Rescued Animals shelter, working with the Worldwide Vets organization. We were spaying and neutering dogs and cats, and treating wounds, infections, and doing some surgeries with wildlife.

This is my fifth time in Ukraine.

I see you have a tattoo, where did you get it?

When I was little, my grandmother embroidered a shirt for me. The tattoo reminds me of this. I had it done at the beginning of the full-scale invasion in Lviv.

Can you tell us about your Ukrainian origin?

My father was born outside of Dnipro in a small village called Spaske during World War II. After two years, he and his family were taken to Germany for forced labor. After the war, he lived for 10 years in a refugee camp. Then, after 10 years, he came to the US with his father, mother, and two brothers. I have two sisters and a brother. My mother is American, but she understands some Ukrainian.

We spoke Ukrainian. How is it that you know our language?

When I was little, my parents founded a Ukrainian church in San Diego. There was also a school where we studied the Ukrainian language and culture. The church and school are no longer there.

Do you practice anything related to Ukrainian culture?

I play the bandura. Our family had a friend who was also from Ukraine and played the bandura very well. He was like an uncle to me. He taught me how to play this instrument. We ordered a bandura from Kharkiv, and I started playing at the age of five. I’ve been playing for over 30 years now.

What’s your favorite song?

Dumy Moyi and Shchedryk. I also sing. By the way, I sometimes cook borshch too.

The Nomad Vet 

How did you decide to become a veterinary doctor?

Well, a book. I read a book called Appointment at the Ends of the World, which is the memoir of a wildlife veterinarian. He traveled around the world to very remote places to work with very exotic species. I read the book and thought, wow, that’s incredible; that’s what I want to do in life. 

Ever since I decided to become a veterinarian, I have wanted to work with vulnerable animal populations around the world. I felt that I could make a big difference in not just animals’ lives but also people’s lives by helping those kinds of animal populations. These are animals on the streets and in shelters, but I also work a lot with wildlife—essentially with animals who don’t have anyone advocating for their health. 

I work in different countries in different settings, and I’m always adapting to the situation. So, it’s always new. I’m always learning more and more.

What does your everyday life look like?

It depends on a month. This month, I’m in Ukraine working with shelters. When I go home, I’ll work at wildlife centers in Florida with birds, tigers, dogs, and cats. Then, I’ll go to Uganda to work with chimpanzees for a month to help with health checks and make sure that they are ok and healthy. And then I’ll go back to California for 3 or 4 months just to stay with my family and work with dogs and cats. Then, hopefully, come back to Ukraine to do more spaying and neutering.

I’m self-employed. I do a lot of volunteer work. This whole trip to Ukraine is volunteer work. In fact, I’ve saved money back home to come to Ukraine and work. If I work with organizations, I do get paid, but it depends on the project.

What’s the most unusual place you have been to?

Uganda is a pretty unique place. I go to a chimpanzee sanctuary in Lake Victoria on Ngamba Island every July. Victoria is the largest lake in Africa. It’s huge. And there is an island sanctuary where 50 chimpanzees live. Every July, I work with the team to conduct their annual health checks to make sure they are healthy and monitor diseases. This year, when we finish with chimpanzees, I’ll be going to other islands to set up mobile veterinary clinics to help people with their cows and goats, pigs, chickens, dogs, and cats. We’ll take a little boat with people from the chimpanzee island, and we’ll land at different parts of different islands. We’ll set up the tables and all our equipment, and then we’ll invite people with animals to come.

This is the first time I’m doing this – it’s a pilot project. So I wasn’t able to get any donations, but hopefully, after this first trip, I can reach out to different organizations for more funding in the future.  

Do you have memorable cases from there?

Last year, when I traveled to Uganda, I brought a portable dental machine for human teeth. I was able to clean the chimpanzees’ teeth for the first time in their lives, which was really cool. They have the same number of teeth that we have. They were fully asleep.

Do you see differences in attitude towards animals?

I travel around the world, so I see many different perspectives that people have towards animals. And I found that no matter where I go, if people’s lives are good, they tend to treat animals well. When people are poor, they tend to treat the animals poorly. Maybe they don’t know better or just don’t care—they have bigger issues. 

What about Ukraine? 

I wouldn’t say that attitude in Ukraine is worse than in other countries I’ve been to. 

I’ve seen the full spectrum of attitudes towards animals.  When I came here to help, it was with very dedicated people, people who respect, care, and love animals, who put themselves in danger to evacuate animals. I’ve also seen another side when people tie up an animal and leave it. 

Do you have any pets? 

Oh, my dog Henry… I was working at the shelter in California doing surgeries one day, and I was doing my presurgical exam on lots and lots of dogs to make sure they were healthy for surgery and anesthesia. I met Henry that morning. He was scheduled for castration. I fell in love with him. And he’s been living with me for more than five years. He is lazy, emotional. He always looks sad. It’s because he’s a boxer, and it’s just the way their faces are, even if it’s happy – it looks sad. He is very loyal. Like me, he can sleep anywhere.

When I travel to the US, he comes with me. But when I travel to other countries, I leave him with my family.

To Ukraine During the Full-Scale War

After the full-scale war started, how did you come to Ukraine for the first time?

I pretty much stopped everything in my life. I had a full-time job, and I left to come and help where I could. In the second week, I was in Poland working on the Polish-Ukrainian border (Medyka-Shehyni border crossing point), with a tent, with people from IFAW, and we were helping refugees as they crossed into the EU with their animals. For about two months, I stayed at the border. It was really tough listening to the stories from people who had fled from Mariupol, Kherson, and Kharkiv. But I didn’t think about leaving at all. I knew that being able to help Ukrainians at this time was important for me.

Do you have any special memories from that time?

I think that was my third day at the border, midnight. And this woman came into our tent. She came from Mariupol with her mother and a cat. She was worried because her cat hadn’t peed for two days. We had rest cages for the cats, a place where he could hide, and a litter box. We put the cat in the little cage, and he immediately went to the kitty litter and started peeing. And she started crying. Finally, all the stress she’s been holding… She was so happy. I started crying, too. 

We talked. She was saying how she had just left her home in Mariupol, how her house was destroyed, it was hit by a missile. And here is this woman who packed her life in several suitcases, and her biggest concern was her cat not peeing.

The whole reason I was at the border was because there were so many people crossing the border with their animals. They wouldn’t leave their animals behind.

Where did you go after that? 

Then I came to Ukraine and traveled around—to Lviv and Odesa for a few months, and then home for June and July 2022. I came back in August. For three weeks, I was supposed to be volunteering with a couple of veterinarians in Odesa. I worked with exotic animals. That three-week trip became four months. I had to help with the evacuation abroad of lions from Odesa. 

Evacuation of a Lion Pride

The lions got names — Stephania, Lesya, and Taras. I reached out to IFAW and asked them if they could help get permits to transport the lions from Ukraine to Poland and then to the US. Even during a war, the paperwork is complicated to transport big animals like lions, tigers, bears, and leopards. This was October or November of 2022… this was when Russia started to target energy infrastructure, power plants, and there were lots of blackouts. So the office which issued permits wasn’t open. So we couldn’t get the paperwork. Eventually, the Polish government said, “OK, you can bring the lion cubs over. We’ll make it work.” That’s when I traveled from Odesa to Kyiv with the three lion cubs and the two vets I was working with.

We went to Natalia Popova’s Wild Animals Rescue Center. Natalia also had a lion cub who was going to join the three and make one pride. She also had a black leopard cub, six adult lions, and an Asian black bear. All of them were evacuated to Poland. 

We all went together. Natalia had a big transport truck. We put the cubs into crates and put them in the back of the truck. Small cubs were in small cages, and they sat in the front with us. They were small enough, and I was still bottle-feeding them. We drove from Kyiv to Poznan for 36 hours. 

I felt bad for the zoo staff because we showed up with a lot of work, especially with the cubs. Four lion cubs and a leopard cub were eating 4-5 times a day. So I stayed at the zoo for about a month. I lived at the zoo. They gave me a uniform and a golf car. I drove to the cubs, and I fed them. 

After a month, permits came to transport them to the US. Someone from New York very graciously donated a private jet to fly the lion cubs all the way from Warsaw to Chicago.

International airline regulations require each animal to be in a crate. Even though it would have been okay if they were free, we weren’t allowed to, and it’s safer for them to be in a crate. They were up in the cabin with us.

It was probably very stressful for them because they had to be separated from each other, and the plane was very loud.

The whole trip was long – 12 hours. In Chicago, we were met by the Wildcat Sanctuary staff. That’s where the lions are now. We loaded the lions into their truck, and then we drove 6 hours to the sanctuary.

The black leopard stayed in Poznan, and now it lives in France.

I saw a video where your arms were scratched!

They have very, very sharp claws. They tried grabbing and holding my arm as I was holding the bottle. When I shared the video with scratches, I was in transit, so I didn’t have time to go get gloves. But once I got to Poland, I definitely got gloves very quickly. 

Is there any point when you must stop contact?

Yes. The sanctuary where they are now is a zero-touch facility, no one has any contact with them, which is absolutely the best possible way. It keeps people and animals safe. We, humans, have this fantasy that we can pet and touch and cuddle any animal. On social media, people are sharing videos of hugging monkeys, cuddling leopards, and sleeping on tigers.  

Maybe it can be okay. In 90% of cases, there’s no issue hugging a tiger that has lived its whole life in captivity. But that 10% of the time when something goes wrong, that’s when people lose fingers, arms. There are even situations when a lion or a tiger attacks somebody, then this animal usually has to be put down or euthanized because it now has this experience. In reality, it’s just doing what it knows how to do. 

A 20-30-second video takes it out of proportion. It’s not the reality of what it’s like to take care of these animals. These animals don’t make good pets. Once they are adults, they become too large to be able to safely play with. So, often, subsequently, they are put in little cages, where they live the rest of their lives. People often get these animals as pets when they are really young, they are so tiny and so precious. But they don’t stay that way forever. After 6-7 months, they already weigh 60 kg, and even if they are playing, they can hurt you. Most people’s reaction is, “if I can’t play with you, you have to stay in this little yard or cage”.

Does it happen in America too?

It does. It depends on the state. I think we have more tigers in captivity in Texas than there are in the wild.

Each state has different laws regarding private ownership of these types of animals, but we are cracking down and getting better in terms of who can privately own a tiger or a lion and who can legally breed them. New laws are in place, and the effect can be released in several years, but the goal is to have none of these animals in captivity anymore in private ownership.

Animal Shelters in Ukraine and in the US

Do you have any stray animals in America?

Oh yeah. We have a lot of stray cats. And we would have a lot of stray dogs, but we have many shelters. So, if a dog is a stray, very soon, he will go to a shelter. If we didn’t have so many shelters, we would have many more dogs on the streets. 

Are shelters in the United States different from Ukrainian ones?

Some shelters in the US are very nice and well-designed. Most shelters are indoors with access to yards outside. They are built as shelters. Every dog and cat has its own room. It’s possible; it just has to be really big. 

They are in cities, so people are more likely to come and say, “This dog is cute; I’ll adopt it.” 

They have a lot of money and can pay staff. They get donations. An animal shelter in a city will have a contract with the city itself. 

There are many successful animal shelters. They have a whole team of people whose job is to find money for the shelter. They have wealthy donors, and they get them to donate money every year.

The shelter I did my training at saw 90,000 animals that year. They are adopted regularly.

Most animal shelters have at least one full-time veterinarian and a clinic where they do surgeries all the time. It is a big difference from the shelters here in Ukraine. They don’t have their own veterinary staff. Maybe they are run by babushkas. If the shelter has a doctor and a veterinary nurse, the spread of diseases will be stopped faster, and they will treat injuries sooner than when animals have to be taken to clinics. The longer you go without sterilizing the animal, the higher the chance there will be more puppies, and you are creating a bigger problem for yourself.

What are the biggest problems you saw in Ukrainian shelters? 

Probably the biggest challenge at all animal shelters – there are too many animals and not enough resources: not enough food or access to veterinary medicine. An animal that is sick and needs medication twice a day can’t get that treatment because there are not enough people to give the medication to the animal. 

I have seen shelters with way too many animals, and they have no plans to move some of the animals. They just take five dogs from the street and put them with the rest of the population: there’s fighting, biting, and disease. 

What can we do to improve it?

Spay and neuter every animal that comes to a shelter or even every stray animal you can trap. One female dog can have 10 puppies, and then from these you’ll have 100 puppies, of those you can have a thousand puppies. Spaying and neutering reduces the number of stray animals, reduces disease spreading, it’s a public health concern. 

Separation is really important. There should be individual areas for the dogs, for example, ten dogs in this room, ten in that one, which do not mix, and then a plan to reduce the number of animals. 

I know, it’s easier said than done.

Do you see differences between American veterinary care and the Ukrainian system?

I worked with a lot of good veterinarians, very smart, very capable. One of the differences is that in the US, we have more access to the advanced machines which we use, which do exist here. 

We actually have a specialization in the US called “shelter medicine”. There’s no such a specialization in Ukraine. But that type of medical care is very different from a local clinic. In a shelter environment, you have lots and lots of animals with little resources, you have to keep diseases under control.

After I finished vet school, I did one year of a shelter internship. 

Together with the Veterinarians Without Borders organization, you conducted and published a webinar about medical care in Ukrainian 

The key point of the lecture was reducing stress. When animals are stressed, just like us, their immune systems go down and then they are more susceptible to disease. In the shelter environment, where lots of animals are mixing together, disease can spread really quickly. Which is why having separate rooms is important. And reducing noise, not having cats next to dogs.

What do you enjoy the most in your job?

When I work with wild animals, for instance, when an animal comes to me first, it’s injured or sick, and I’m able to fix it, and I get to see it get to the point where it’s healthy and can go back to the wild. Those releases are absolutely my favorite moments. 

The UAnimals volunteer community is celebrating its first anniversary! Today, it boasts over 2,300 members, each contributing uniquely to animal protection. Volunteers assist in shelters, participate in nature clean-ups, evacuate animals from dangerous areas, or distribute food in frontline cities and villages.

Viktoriya Ovsiannikova recently returned from such a trip. She distributed a hundred kilograms of cat and dog food in the Kharkiv region, including in Zolochiv and the villages of Hubarivka and Kalynove, which have been ravaged by shelling. In these cities and villages, residents care for many animals abandoned by their previous owners.

Viktoriya lives in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv region, where she works as a secretary in a medical institution. Her husband, who initially helped with animal volunteering, joined the Armed Forces this year.

Outside of her work with UAnimals, Viktoriya leads an active animal protection life. Thanks to her and her friend Yuliya Kachkariova, many homeless animals find new families. They also ensure these animals are sterilized, aiming to reduce the number of stray dogs and cats in Bohodukhiv. Viktoriya shared all of this in the interview.

Operation Puppy Rescue and Animal Protection in Bohodukhiv   

I have always felt sorry for stray animals, but what could I do? I would feed them and move on. I lacked the resolve to do more until one particular incident.

In 2019, a video appeared on our community’s social media about a homeless dog in Bohodukhiv that had given birth to ten puppies. The video urged people to adopt them. In our town lives a veterinarian, Yuliya Kachkariova, who had previously given me advice over the phone when my cat was sick. We have kept in touch on social media. Then, we both saw the post about the street dogs at the same time and decided to go see if we could help.

In the meantime, the puppies had become a bit too popular: many people approached them, scaring them into hiding. Yuliya and I spent two months catching them from under concrete slabs and giving them away. It was an entire operation that brought us closer together.

This friendship gave me the strength and support to help animals more actively. Yuliya already had experience finding homes for stray cats and dogs, but now we do it together. We also often temporarily take animals in because there are no shelters in our town.

Yuliya spays and neuters stray dogs and cats for free. We also have a charity account where residents of the Bohodukhiv community can donate money for spaying and neutering or treatment if they want to support stray animals.

Previously, Bohodukhiv residents were wary of sterilization, especially the religious ones. They believed it was a sin. But recently, a local priest had his dog sterilized and told his congregation about it. Since then, their attitude has changed. They say: sterilize your pet and have a clear conscience!

Practically all the stray animals in our town are now sterilized. I believe this has led to fewer aggressive animals in Bohodukhiv. They roam the town peacefully, and no one chases them away. On the contrary, lately, I’ve seen people placing water for the animals in the park and near various businesses. Many people at the market take care of the strays. Attitudes toward animals in Bohodukhiv are changing. I hope that in the future, conflicts between people and animals will be minimal.

Legal Victory  

In June, a person in our community was punished for animal abuse. I spent seven months visiting various authorities to make it happen, and I was the one who reported it to the police.

In a village near Bohodukhiv, there is a man who kept animals but didn’t feed them. We believe he took his dog to the forest, put it in a sack, and abandoned it. The dog chewed through the sack and survived, later found by people. However, there was no direct evidence that the owner did this, although neighbors had long known about his treatment of animals. Later, this same man got a puppy and chained it up. After some time, the puppy died from the cold.

I didn’t know how to proceed. I should have called the investigative team, but a patrol arrived instead. Again, it was impossible to prove that the owner’s actions led to the animal’s death. But I am sure that was the case.

The owner was fined for improper animal care (under Article 154 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). Previously, no one in the community dealt with such cases. If someone beat a dog or took it to the forest, people would say, “Well, it’s their dog, they can do whatever they want.” Now, we have a precedent where the owner was punished for such actions.

And now, I know how to act in such cases.

Evacuating Animals from Kharkiv: Combat Parrots and Other Rescues

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, my husband and I transported many animals. When serious shelling began in Kharkiv, it was quiet in our area. We understood that many people would leave Kharkiv, and there would be trouble with animals there. I was subscribed to many Kharkiv groups, and people started posting, “Take our dog” and “Looking for families for our puppies.” We brought animals from Kharkiv to Bohodukhiv and found owners for them. I was most surprised that in difficult times, people were willing to take in animals, some even multiple ones.

On our first trip, such exotic animals were in the car! Five puppies were in two boxes in the trunk. Two cages with parrots were on the back seat, and a guinea pig was in a small carrier. When we approached a checkpoint, the soldiers looked into our car, and my husband said, “Do you need combat parrots?”

The emotions are hard to describe… I remember now with tears in my eyes. It was scary then, but everything worked out thanks to people who were willing to take animals into their families.

Violetta Tohobytska, a doctoral student at the National University of Civil Protection of Ukraine, helped us a lot in Kharkiv. She sheltered many animals. Violetta lives in the Kholodna Hora area (a locality in the western part of Kharkiv). She went to Saltivka (the eastern part of the city), which was heavily shelled and took animals to her place. We met her in Kholodna Hora, took the animals, and transported them further. There were people in Kharkiv who went to dangerous areas to save animals.

Sara the Shepherd Dog

In the early days of the full-scale invasion, when Kharkiv residents were hiding in the subway, a woman called me. She said, “I’m a veterinarian. Yesterday, a dog was brought to me in the subway, and they asked me to euthanize it. Now I’m sitting in the underground with a shepherd dog. Can you find it a home?” It was a generally healthy shepherd dog named Sara. The people said they were leaving and couldn’t take Sara with them, “If you want, we’ll leave her with you, or we’ll inject her with something, and that will be it.” Of course, the doctor refused. These people came back the next day and said they tried to poison the dog, but the poison didn’t work. They just left Sara there and went away.

Sara was 9 years old and, though not ill, had poor eyesight. It was wartime, people were leaving… And here was an old shepherd dog — who would need her?

It was February 26, 2022. People were afraid to go to Kharkiv. Even my husband refused. I found a driver in Bohodukhiv who still went and picked up Sara.

I was worried because she was an adult dog, and I had only dealt with puppies before. But it turned out that Sara was very smart, well-behaved, and calm. We concluded she was a service dog because she knew all the commands.

My friend Olha agreed to take her. She prepared a place in the boiler room with good conditions. But soon, she called and said, “You know, the dog is missing. “How could she get out of the boiler room if you have a door there?” We started searching. The shepherd dog had poor vision, and there was a lot of traffic in the city center! I had already lost hope, but the next day, I saw her at the market. We found Sara.

There were cameras in that room. We reviewed the footage. It was interesting to see how the dog got out. It turned out Sara approached the door, pressed the handle with her paw, and went out.

Olha had taken the shepherd dog temporarily but decided to keep her permanently. So, Sara still lives with her.

To the Shelter with Puppies, But Without the Husband

Over the past two years, we have found homes for about 300 animals. Even I am amazed by these numbers.

At first, I was scared to take in new animals. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, I had five puppies at home. I thought, “If we have to hide quickly, how will I get all the animals to the basement?”

Later, when we experienced explosions, my daughter would be the first to run to the basement with two dogs, followed by me with a box containing the five puppies. Once, I got stuck in the doorway with this box. My husband stood behind me, unable to get out because I was blocking the way. He said, “You see, you saved the animals, but you forgot me here!” There were times when my husband was already in the basement, and I was still running around the house, collecting the puppies.

I am always filled with joy when I find a home for a cat or a dog. If I have helped some living being, I tell myself, “Vika, you didn’t live this day in vain!” I have found my purpose in helping animals. A person can help themselves, but only a person can help an animal. 

On June 5, 2023, at 8 p.m., hydrometeorological center workers measured the water level of the Dnipro River at 532 centimeters (209 inches) above the datum level of the Kherson stream gauging station*. 

This was a normal water level for early June.

Approximately six hours later, the invading troops blew up the dam of the Kakhovka Reservoir on the left bank of the Dnipro. Villages and towns downstream began to flood. 

A year after the dam’s destruction, eyewitness accounts have more or less settled into coherent stories. Just ask, and they flow like the water that burst through the destroyed dam. Witnesses recall the flood: they saved themselves and rescued those who were helpless from the muddy water.

June 6

Natalia from Oleshky 

It was half past four in the morning. I heard my son talking to someone on the phone. Then I heard the sound of him running. I realized something had happened. He came rushing in and said, “Mom, they called from Kherson, they say the Kakhovka HPP has been blown up.” My God!

We were at home in Oleshky. My father was 94 years old. He was immobile, so we couldn’t leave. No one believed this could happen. We decided to move to the second floor of a neighbor’s house. They had left in 2022, and we were looking after their dog, a German shepherd named Archik. So we moved everything there, dismantled my father’s bed. We wrapped him in a sheet, and my son carried him like in a sack while I helped him. That’s how we got to the second floor. And the water was coming in at an incredible rate…

Oksana from Kherson

At five in the morning, my son called from Canada, “Mom, what’s happening? We all know about the explosion.”

At first, the water was rising slowly. First, it was ankle-deep, then knee-deep. People were panicking and didn’t want to leave their homes. No one believed the water would reach the rooftops.

8 a.m. — 660 cm (259 inches) above datum level

Hanna from Mykolaiv 

I remember that morning like it was yesterday. I am a fitness coach, and sometimes people call me even in the middle of the night. So, I decided to take a break and turned off my phone. I woke up to a million calls. What’s going on? A volunteer friend from Kherson called, “Hanna, the flooding has started.” We left for Kherson.

Katia from Kyiv 

In the morning, I was told over the phone that the UAnimals evacuation team was leaving for Kherson in 30 minutes. I threw a warm sweater and a bunch of gadgets into my backpack. I forgot my toothbrush, though.

The situation was new, and no one knew how to handle a boat. Even if we got one, what would we do with it? Everyone was so scared.

Alisiya from Kyiv

People immediately started asking if the Kyiv Animal Rescue Group (KARG) would go to evacuate animals from Kherson. Of course, we decided to go. But we needed an extra boat, chemical protection suits, waders. The whole day was a rush and hustle. We finally left in the evening, the car packed to the brim.

3 p.m. — 796 cm (313 inches) above datum level 

Hanna from Mykolaiv

When it all had just begun, we didn’t see the big flood — perhaps a puddle. We were walking around with an animal catcher, leisurely collecting dogs. Then another driver of mine called me, “Get here immediately!! The entire Ostriv is flooded!”

Our eyes were as big as saucers because we had packed the car full of cages with dogs by then. We started heading in that direction — and realized there was nowhere to go! We were literally floating. In front of us, soldiers in a jeep were cutting through the waves, and we were “rowing” along with them.

I prayed the car wouldn’t stall at that moment. As soon as we made it out, the soldiers ran up to us, “Are you volunteers? Take the animals!” So we added a cat, a tomcat, kittens, and a German shepherd. And that’s how we headed to Mykolaiv.

Natalia from Oleshky

We have the Chaika River flowing nearby. People rushed to the shore to see if the water would reach us. When the river started to overflow, they ran back to their homes.

We had two German shepherds with us: our neighbor’s Archik and our Luna. We had to get them to the second floor as well. They didn’t want to go and were scared. While we were getting them up, Archik bit my husband. It was impossible to go through the door; we set up a ladder and passed the dogs through the balcony. They even jumped from the second floor into the water. Oh, the way we caught them! Archik jumped when the water was knee-deep, and my husband and daughter caught him wading through the water. The next day, Luna jumped, and my son caught her already from a boat.

The russians themselves were in shock, running away! People said many of them drowned.

Two russians floated past us on an inflatable mattress, both with rifles. They moored to a fence, one took a puppy from a yard, ripped off half a slate sheet from the roof, and continued paddling with that piece of slate.

The russians had been taking boats from people, not just before the flood but probably two months before it. So, we dragged our boats behind the houses and hid them using greenhouses. We dumped grass and sand and then covered them with rails. From above — with drones flying around like crazy —  it must have looked like a pile of firewood.

And thank God we did that. When the water was above our knees, we dismantled the rubble and prepared the boats. 

7 p.m. — 867 cm (341 inches) above datum level  

By sunset, the water had already covered the fences.

June 7

7 a.m. — 1025 cm (403 inches) above datum level

Katia from Kyiv

We arrived in Kherson with the UAnimals evacuation team. As soon as you step out of the car, you hear powerful explosions. If you’ve come from Kyiv, the contrast is immediately apparent. It seemed like I could hear an explosion every five minutes.

Alisiya from Kyiv

The first animal we rescued was a little mouse clinging to a bush. It was sitting on a twig in the middle of the water; I took it and handed it to a volunteer. The mouse was weak and needed to be nursed back to health.

A temporary animal shelter was specially opened in Kherson for this mission, where several organizations, including ours, brought animals.

The phone was constantly ringing, people were sending addresses and asking for help. We created a rough plan for the day from these addresses, but finding those places was difficult: house numbers were underwater, the navigator was inaccurate… But we did the most rescuing while looking for those addresses. There was barking from somewhere, meowing from another direction, chickens clucking, roosters crowing, and you couldn’t leave anyone behind!

3 p.m. — 1048 cm above datum level 

Hanna from Mykolaiv

We were heading towards Chaikovskoho Street. We waded knee-deep into the water, but then it got too deep to continue. We started collecting dogs, grabbing them, and putting them in carriers. Then some boys ran up, “Help our friend!” A young man around 20 years old with cerebral palsy came out. He was struggling to walk, falling, and getting back up. He had two German shepherds with him. He cried, not wanting to part with them, but his home was flooding. We took the dogs from him, and he promised to come back for them later. The water kept rising, and we retreated further, rescuing animals from the water.

That day, we saved the most famous dog. Do you remember the photo of a German shepherd hugging the leg of its rescuer? We named her Bahira. We were evacuating Bahira from Kherson.

Photographer — Danylo Pavlov / Reporters

Oksana from Kherson

We went into the water up to our necks, hurting our arms and legs. Whenever a cat or dog surfaced, we pulled them out of the water. There were ordinary people, and we didn’t even ask their names. People were dragging their belongings, volunteers were ferrying elderly people, dogs, chickens, and goats on boats.

Rostyslav from Kherson

I took two young women from the Mykolaiv Animal Protection Center — an animal catcher and a veterinarian — in the boat. We started from Naftohavan. You could float above the fences there: the water was over 5 meters deep, with only the attics sticking out.

Hardly anyone was “cruising around” there: the russians were just 400 meters away. We saw a garage for a truck, and next to it, a dog was drowning. It turned out later that its leg had been broken and healed incorrectly, so it couldn’t swim. We grabbed it by the mane, pulled it out, and began to resuscitate it. It didn’t breathe for 15 minutes. The women never gave up. The dog survived.

June 8

7 a.m. — 1060 cm (417 inches) above datum level

Alisiya from Kyiv

We had already filled our carriers with animals and were heading back to the rendezvous point. Suddenly, a rooster crowed. We looked around and saw a lot of chickens in a tree. Misha climbed up to get them, and at that moment, shelling started. The place where we would have reached in a minute was peppered with shrapnel. Thus, it turned out that the rooster saved us.

We found a hiding place for a while. We sat there and saw a boat floating by without people… What had happened there?

Then we continued with the chickens, but there were too many — about 20. There was no room for them in the boat. We found an empty plastic barrel floating in the yard and filled it with chickens. We went back like this: a motorboat, towing a rubber boat, and tied to that, a barrel full of chickens.

It was easy to go out on the water for the first couple of days, but then the shelling started. The police and the military commander began prohibiting it… One would allow it, another would not. We spent a lot of time getting permissions.

Rostyslav from Kherson

We were rescuing animals in Zymivnyk. There were many drowned dogs because people had left them chained up.

In one barn, kittens were floating under the roof. The barn was barred, so they couldn’t get out. We broke the roof and got them out. We named one kitten Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and the other remained nameless.

We also transported a goat named Torpedo by boat. We called her that because she was fast and kept running away from us. She somehow got to the second floor of a house, onto a veranda; we barely managed to catch her.

And then there was such a touching reunion between this goat and her owner! The woman stood beyond a checkpoint, and we brought the goat. She shouted, “Zorya, Zorya!” The goat replied, “Meh-eh-eh!” and ran to her owner, who ran to the goat. Such a reunion!

Hanna from Mykolaiv

The third day was the worst. We were rescuing animals in Naftohavan. They were covered in mazut and dirt, and everything smelled awful.

I was amazed at how our people came together. I had never seen volunteers help each other like this. It was probably the only day in the history of animal protection organizations where they were stealing animals from each other. I barely managed to get a dog out of the water before the carrier with it disappeared. I said, “People, you can’t do this!”

I was wearing summer shorts and a T-shirt, and that’s how I swam. But that day, people from Odesa gave us an expensive yacht, and from then on, we rescued animals on that boat.

We sailed around Ostriv, scraping the bottom against everything: you couldn’t see where you were! We would reach a fence, climb onto it, and then climb onto the roofs. That’s where we caught the animals.

We saved a dog I remember the most. I climbed onto the roof and fell through. My friend Yulia went ahead and said, “Here’s a dog standing on a board in a straight line, its paws bleeding.” The dog wanted to live so much that it stood on that plank for who knows how long.

As soon as we got the dog to shore, a woman took it in and is still happy with it. Imagine, people from shelters were not the only ones waiting on the shore; there were also people taking animals for themselves.

Once, I received an address: 24 Dorofeyeva Str. — 12 dogs, 20 cats. We sailed there, scraping this yacht, and a woman from the window said, “I told you, I won’t go anywhere without my animals!” I consider people who acted like this Anya heroes. We evacuated her with her cats and dogs.

Oksana from Kherson

I posted the first photos on Facebook, and people started reaching out to me. They said they would take the animals. So I started bringing the rescued animals to my garage, my apartment, my son’s apartment, and the apartment of my neighbor who had left. At one point, I had 80 cats at once — wet, dirty, scared. We rescued these cats, let them out, fed them, and went back again. And so it went until nightfall. There wasn’t even time to drink water!

June 9

7 a.m. — 1035 cm (407 inches) above datum level

Natalia from Oleshky

The water started to recede. By 11 a.m., we saw the first step and decided that we wouldn’t get another chance if we didn’t leave before the invaders recovered.

We got into the boat, loaded the dogs. I shouted, “Pray! Pray in any way you can!”

As we passed our house (crying), we could only see the roof. It was very painful.

We reached the river, and there… It was like an ocean! I had never seen so much water before. Believe me, was terrifying.

You could see the entire city of Kherson. Both my son and husband worked as captains, so they knew the area. We reached Dachi. Thankfully, it was our guys, our soldiers, who met us.

Archik, the dog, my father, my son, and my eldest grandson stayed in our boat and were brought separately. We took Luna, our German shepherd, and got into another boat with the soldiers, who brought us to Kherson.

3 p.m. — 1011 cm (398 inches) above datum level  

Katia from Kyiv

We got caught on an electric wire, and our boat started to sink.

Anything could be underwater. If it was an industrial area, there could be a train, and you wouldn’t know.

A man passing by saved us. He said, “I can’t come closer because I’ll get caught, and we’ll both go down to the bottom.” But he still approached and cut the wire. He mentioned that two soldiers had recently been dragged under a barge and died. No one was safe there.

June 11, 3 p.m. — 900 cm (354 inches) above datum level

June 12–18: A week after the explosion

Alisiya from Kyiv

We worked in Kherson for about two weeks. We were wet the entire time. We were constantly in the water; our clothes barely dried overnight. The water was disgusting, full of dead bodies. Then the rains started. You’d come out of the water only to be drenched by the rain. Vadym and Misha would get into their wetsuits in the morning and keep them on until night.

Once, we had to make a choice. Two dogs were sitting on a pile of debris, not coming into contact with anyone. We needed to catch them with a noose, but we only had one. We understood that while catching one dog, the other would escape. We chose the dog missing part of its paw. The other ran off across the boards and debris. The rescued dog is still looking for a home. After the initial hype wave, the interest in these animals faded.

Katia from Kyiv

I decided to make a film from the footage we shot. It was supposed to show only what I saw. I wanted these images not to be forgotten. I think few people can imagine what really happened there.

When I arrived in Kherson, I realized how hard it was to live there. It looked like hell, honestly. In such conditions, you revert to basic needs: where to get water, food… And people are united around one goal — survival.

Some people stay in Kherson to feed stray animals. I know an old woman, Tetiana. She says, “The animals wait for me every day at two. And I must go feed them.”

June 20. When the Water Receded

3 p.m. — 560 cm (220 inches) above datum level 

From the Hydrometeorological Center report: as of June 23, the water level has stabilized at values characteristic of the Dnipro River’s hydrologic regime.

Oksana from Kherson

When the water receded, everything was in a terrible condition. The stench was unbearable! Many animals had died. People were carrying everything out of their apartments; there were heaps of trash everywhere. All those refrigerators, washing machines — everything was ruined and useless. On top of that, there was shelling. The heat was unbearable, and we were delivering humanitarian aid and animal feed in bulletproof vests.

Natalia from Oleshky

We kept the neighbor’s German shepherd until volunteers sent Archik to Poland to his owner. We also had to give away Luna because we had to move to an apartment in Mykolaiv. We didn’t leave until we found her a place. She now lives in the Mykolaiv region with a man who has a house and garden. He sends us videos showing how she’s doing.

Hanna from Mykolaiv

For me, Bahira symbolizes this tragedy. My friend Liudmila Melnykova from the Moyi Zhyvi Sobaky (My Living Dogs) Odesa shelter took care of her for a long time. Bahira was not young and had to spend two days in the water. She could barely walk. We hired a rehabilitation professional who worked with her daily.

She couldn’t tolerate other dogs or cats. She only loved people. It was tough to find her a home. We searched for a year—a whole year! The whole world knew about her; everyone asked, but no one took her.

Only in February did I take her to the parents of a friend. She doesn’t leave her owner’s side now. She just loves people so much.

Oksana from Kherson

I kept several cats; I couldn’t part with them. Now, I have nine cats. And 28 outside. I know all of them!

They come every morning. I feed both cats and dogs. Every evening, I cook two 5-liter pots of porridge. I give one to my neighbor, Aunt Tania. She distributes food to the animals but is afraid of the shelling; she always asks if there’s an alert or if it’s over. I say, “All clear,” — and she is already running with those buckets.

Oksana looks into a cage with a kitten

Natalia from Oleshky

People usually sympathize, but some say, “Well, we were also under shelling, so what?” The scariest thing was hearing people cry, “Help!” at night — almost the whole night. Even talking about it now gives me chills.

This has become a part of us.

***

Told by: 

Hanna Kurkurina — powerlifter, athlete, animal rescue volunteer, living in Mykolaiv. 

Natalia —  a resident of Oleshky, formerly a telephone operator, now living in Mykolaiv.

Alisiya Polykha — animal rescuer with KARG (Kyiv Animal Rescue Group). Accompanied by Mariya, Mykhailo, and Vadym. 

Rostyslav Kulyk — volunteer with the Strong Because Free organization, owner of a pit bull and three cats from Kherson.

Oksana Synenko — medical worker, volunteer, and animal rights advocate, living in Kherson.

Katia Krokha — documentary filmmaker, videographer for UAnimals, living in Kyiv. 

Interviews by Nataliya Pendiur — 508 cm (200 inches) above the datum level of the Kyiv stream gauging station.

This publication was compiled with the support of the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation within the framework «European Renaissance of Ukraine» project. Its content is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation.

Hydrological levels at the Kherson stream gauging station were provided by the Hydrological Forecast Department of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center.

Main photo: Associated Press. Other photos provided by the interviewees and KARG, unless otherwise stated in the caption to a photo.

If you meet them “on a volunteer assignment” and want to say hello, they probably won’t shake your hand. Not because they’re unfriendly — quite the opposite, their hands are usually full with firewood, boards, tools or leashes for walking dogs. And their faces show both tiredness and satisfaction. It’s a mix of feelings after work that fills them up.

My conversation partners are from the UAnimals volunteer community. Here’s how it works: people from any city or village in Ukraine register in a Telegram bot that offers various tasks in the field of animal protection. Volunteers choose which of them they are interested in and agree to participate. You can distribute animal food to those in need, help in shelters, clean up parks or plant seedlings. Curator Anastasiia Kovalchuk helps with the details. Currently, there are over 1500 volunteers in the community, spread across all regions of Ukraine.

An actress? A designer? A mechanic? A top manager? Even the prime minister or the first lady! Anyone who shares UAnimals’ values of humane treatment of animals can join the community. I talked to volunteers from four regions. Let’s get to know:

• Liza from Zaporizhzhia, working in advertising and marketing;
• Nataliia from Mykolaiv, branch manager of an energy company;
• Vika from Bohodukhiv in Kharkiv region, a secretary in a medical institution;
• Mariia from Kyiv, a stylist and makeup artist;
• Anzhelika from Kyiv, a photo editor;
• Ivan from Kyiv, a top manager in a technical company;
• Anhelina from Mykolaiv and Kyiv, studying journalism and acting in theatre.

“We asked for something to do ourselves”: about the tasks in the UAnimals volunteer community

Vika with her friend Yuliia, a veterinarian

Vika: I travelled with humanitarian aid across the Kharkiv region — distributing food for cats and dogs. I was in Zolochiv, Chornohlazivka and then in my town, Bohodukhiv. In Zolochiv, a local volunteer Nastia Nechaieva helped me organise everything. We had 200 kilograms of food. At first, I thought I would have to spend the whole day walking around and offering it to people in their yards. But when Nastia called people from the market, and when we saw this crowd, we were shocked. People with many animals approached — seven dogs and nine cats each. It took us 20 minutes to distribute all of this!

Liza with her friend volunteering

Liza: I also distributed food several times. Back then, it was relatively calm towards Komyshuvakha, so I drove there by car. I visited villages such as Shchaslyve, Kushchove, Novoivanivka, Yasna Poliana, Hryhorivka and Zhovtenke. They sent me 100 kilograms of food per trip. My friend Daria and I distributed it all, weighing and packing it ourselves, one kilo per dog or cat. And we went together, as it was more convenient: one of us would pick up the food, while the other one would talk to the locals.

On our first trip, we were worried, especially when passing through checkpoints: we had to explain in detail why and where we were going, and all our answers were recorded. Then we got used to it a bit. The last two trips were to Hryhorivka and Zhovtenke, where there are difficulties with food, and people find it hard to go to the city. We were driving down the streets, if we saw a person, we called out and asked. Every family that has stayed there has many animals: from three dogs and sometimes to ten cats. People take care of the animals of their neighbours, who have left, and also pick up and feed the stray ones. Moreover, many animals were brought there from Orikhiv. So the food was gone very quickly.

Nataliia and her dog Dana

Nataliia: Well, what can I say: I handed out food under the rockets and drove off! I started driving in the summer and still regularly go to the frontline villages: Prybuzke, Lyman, Dmytrivka. I went to Ochakiv and also to the village of Kutsurub: there is a constant artillery shelling there, as the russians are just 5 kilometres away, on the Kinburn Spit. They even reach there with tanks.

When I went for the first time, I just handed out food to people on the streets. But then I got to know a military volunteer. It was she who already showed me where the pensioners lived, and we brought food directly to their homes.

Those villages that were right on the front line are destroyed — every house is shattered. During the fights, there was nobody there, and now people are returning, rebuilding whatever they can… It’s emotionally tough to see the ruins and hear tragic stories, but if not us, then who?

Ivan is a top manager on weekdays and a volunteer on weekends

Ivan: We take on every task. With Mariia, Anhelina and Anzhelika, we often meet for clean-ups, repairs or walking dogs in shelters. On our last trip, we visited Rifugio shelter. They gave us a tour and told us how the animals lived and how they were fed. It was more of a relaxed visit to feed the animals and pet them. But we asked for something to do ourselves because we’re volunteers. So we moved some firewood a little, dragged some boards, fed goats and horses — everyone brought some treats.

Personally, it’s not so important for me what exactly to do in the shelter, the main thing is that we’re getting involved in the process. Once, I went to the shelter to help with cleaning. I was 15 minutes late, and everyone was already busy cleaning, so they just let me walk the dogs. And this is very important work! When there are 300 dogs in the shelter and they are walked only once every three days, they really need it. I’m up for any task: feeding, pouring water for stray animals. In our community, we don’t pick and choose: “I’ll do this, I won’t do that.”

Liza: There are many directions in animal protection. You can financially support shelters. You can walk animals in shelters. In Zaporizhzhia, there’s a vet clinic that temporarily houses stray animals. So, for example, you can go there and walk the dogs. An important direction is to teach children how to communicate with animals, to explain that they are also living beings who feel. And the easiest way is to take a bag of food and feed stray animals. Anyone can do that.

“Filling up when giving love”: why volunteer?

Mariia: It motivates and uplifts the mood, especially when you manage to do something at the shelter. Usually, there’s a pleasant atmosphere, and interesting people gather there. It’s more about satisfaction.

Anhelina: Satisfaction from being needed.

Anzhelika: I even selfishly enjoy the fact that on weekends, you can go to the shelter — actually to nature, where there’s some physical work. I get a kick out of it. I especially love walking dogs because I can’t have my own one yet.

Ivan: For me, it’s also a kind of relaxation. I had a vacation a week ago. I spent three days of it in shelters. In Zoopatrul, Patron and Rifugio. I look at my photos — and after volunteering, my eyes always shine. No matter how hard it may seem, it always gives energy.

Ivan at Rifugio

Anhelina: When you go on a volunteer assignment, you have a goal. When you achieve it, you come back home like, “Wow…”. You fill up. You fill up when you touch happy animals, when you help animals that have suffered from war or people, and when you give love. And it doesn’t matter whether you give this love to people or animals.

Once I took photos of Ryzhyk at the shelter. He’s probably the most photogenic cat in the world. He was really like a supermodel: lifting his paws, turning his face to the camera, making different expressions… I posted everything on Instagram, and after a while, I saw that someone liked his photos, and now he has a home. It’s at moments like these that you understand what it’s all for.

“Guys, be quiet, you’ll wake up the bat”: most memorable moments

Vika: My husband and I rescued animals from Kharkiv when there was heavy shelling. Sometimes from Oleksiivka, sometimes from Saltivka… We had guinea pigs and parrots. And when people were ready to take in the animals, we took them to Krasnyi Kut, Merefa, even to Krasnohrad… I was ready to go anywhere so that the animals could have a family. When I remember all this, tears come to my eyes.

I was surprised by the fact that people were ready to take in animals. It never happened that puppies stayed with us for more than two months. In 2022, since the start of the full-scale war, about 300 animals were given away.

Mariia: I have a vivid memory from my childhood: when I was around 13 years old, I pulled puppies out of a trash bin. My mom and I heard something whimpering, so we went to see. It turned out blind puppies were lying in that bin, and they weren’t easy to reach. So I had to climb in there. I’m still proud that I wasn’t afraid. We took them home, raised them, and our neighbour gave them away later.

Anzhelika: When I was little, my mom and I found a pigeon with a wounded wing and nursed it back to health. When we saw that it wanted to be free, we took it back to where we found it. And it flew away. I cried for three days because I got so attached to it.

Ivan: I remember my birthday a few years ago. It was December 28th. I go out onto the balcony, and I hear something like crackling. I lift the blanket — and there’s a bat. They were supposed to be asleep already. It somehow got onto the balcony, fell onto the blanket and woke up. I called the organisation that dealt with bats, and they told me: take it in a box, cover it with a net, put it in the fridge — and it will fall asleep there. So I did. The window washers came to clean my windows, they were banging. I told them, “Guys, be quiet, you’ll wake up the bat.” And these big guys, “Show us!” And there it was, sleeping in the box with only its paw sticking out. So the bat lived in my fridge until spring.

Anhelina: I remember Sara, a yard dog who lives at Patron. I used to walk her. Sara has no front legs, but she tries to walk. She’s a dog with such strong willpower, with a thirst for life. She trusts people, makes contact and keeps on living. Sara gives me strength, motivation and inspiration.

Inhabitant of the fridge

Sereda, Piatnytsia, Marharyn, and others: who live with volunteers at home

Liza: Right now, I have a cat in foster care. And there’s Luna, a dog. Four years ago, I found 11 puppies near an abandoned house. My friends and I treated and sterilized them. I kept Luna for myself.

Nataliia: Cats Barsik, Snizhok, Niusha, Tolstyi, Sonia. I also have a dog. Someone found her in a dumpster and was trying to find her a home. The puppy was scared and wouldn’t come to anyone. It turned out she had been bitten by a dog. In the clinic, they said, another day or two, and this puppy would have died. So now, I have a dog Dana, and they are friends with the cat Tolstyi.

Vika: In the Kharkiv group, there was a video of five puppies found in the central market. There was a little black one among them. I looked at him and thought: that’s it, he’s mine. Now he’s my dog Lumi. People don’t even believe he’s not purebred. He grew up so beautiful, it’s like a bonus for my volunteering.

I also have Zhulia, who gave birth to 10 puppies: the little ones were given away, and I took the dog. And moreover, two cats — Markusha and Bonia, both of them were found.

Zhulia is gentle, but very timid. She only bonded with me. And Lumi is very sociable, full of energy and emotions. He’s like a copy of me!

I rescued Bonia from the dumpster. And Markusha, whom my child found in a box near the pond — he’s just the cat of my dreams. Black mask, black ears, and beige himself. No one believes he’s a rescue.

Anzhelika: I have three cats: Sereda, Piatnytsia and Marharyn. The former ones are female and male cats from the same shelter with a year’s difference. The female cat wasn’t very sociable. When she got used to us, we went back to the shelter and got her. And we took the latter male cat last year. Piatnytsia [ed.: ‘Friday’ in Ukrainian] and Sereda [ed.: ‘Wednesday’ in Ukrainian] are named after the days we got them from the shelter. And Marharyn [ed.: from ‘Margarine’] is a boy, we associated him with something soft and chubby.

Ivan: I have one cat, Filia. She’s purebred — and she stands out. And with such a character, that one is enough for me!

“You should help people instead”: about other people’s attitude to animal volunteering

Ivan: I’m often asked: why do you do this, spend time and resources? Not everyone understands how instead of lying down on Saturday, you can get up and go to work.

Anzhelika: My friends support me in volunteering: I collected things for insulating enclosures, and my friends practically collected everything I needed.

Liza: People used to say, “Oh, you should help people instead.” Those who say that don’t help people either. It’s just idle talk. 

Nevertheless, people are mostly inspired when they see someone caring. Once I found kittens, posted them on Instagram, and my friends took them. Although they used to say “no animals.”

Nataliia: My husband supports me in animal volunteering, sometimes he went with me to distribute food. Of course, he wasn’t very happy that I kept bringing cats home one after another, but he got used to it. My daughter is an adult. When I had to feed the little kittens, we did it as a family: my daughter came, and my mother came too. It was like with little children. My family is with me in this, I’m not alone.

Who said ‘no animals’? The feathered patrol flies out to convince: no rescued animals are ever enough! That’s why UAnimals always have rescue projects — please support them.

Ivan: When new people come to shelters, it’s a responsibility. If you come, it’s important to know how to handle animals or at least listen to those around you. During dog walks, people sometimes go just wherever they want. When they meet other dogs, they start fighting. Or the dog runs away, and they don’t know what to do. Volunteering is cool, but you have to have common sense and responsibility. Of course, I invite everyone and try to get them involved, but it’s not just for fun or karma points. Once you come to a shelter, you have to be responsible for your actions.

“One post — and five people have already done something”: why talk about volunteering

Ivan: I invited a friend to the shelter in Makariv, and she asked me to make a post about it. She said: the more you show people how they can help, the more people might start doing it. You might not even know about it, but someone might think about it, someone might feed, someone might donate… I made this post just for her. And afterwards, three of my friends asked to join my next volunteering session, and two asked for the details on where to donate. One post — and five people have already done something. And those are just the ones I know. I used to think that good deeds, as they say, are done in silence. But now I’ve changed my mind: you need to tell, post and involve other people.

Anhelina: That’s how it was for me with Patron. I went there to help clean up. And I was so inspired by this shelter that I launched my collection for them. I raised funds and bought what was needed at that moment: medicines, cleaning supplies… When I came there, the owner took photos of me with those bags and posted it. She believed it was worth it. Please, show that you are volunteering. In this way, you inspire other people.

Mariia: None of my friends were involved in animal volunteering. But when I started posting stories from shelters, my friends started writing, “Oh, cool, let’s go together.” Not everyone imagines what needs to be done, and how it goes. Maybe they couldn’t dare because they didn’t know what exactly would happen there. And if a familiar person has already done it, it’s easier. Many of my friends wanted to join. When you volunteer, it’s important to talk about it.

Blow pipes with a hypnotic, nooses, flashlights and treats are the things that stray animal catchers always have about them. Some of them also bring a shovel to get the animal out from under the rubble (if necessary), and cardboard to avoid lying on the cold ground during observations. All for the sake of sneaking closer and catching a street animal for sterilization.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the situation with stray animals has significantly worsened throughout Ukraine, especially in the frontline regions. This is evidenced by the results of a study conducted by  Socioinform Ukrainian Centre for Public Opinion Research. Thus, in the frontline regions, the number of cats and dogs cared for by animal volunteers has increased by an average of 60%, and in shelters — by more than 100%. 

We spoke with Khrystyna Drahomaretska and Serhii Abramov,  professional animal catchers in UAnimals sterilization missions in the east and south of the country, about why animal sterilization is the right decision in such circumstances and what is the role of catchers in this.

What is the professional path of catchers like?

Khrystyna and Serhii have in common not only cooperation with UAnimals, but also the fact that they came to the profession of animal catchers from completely different fields. Khrystyna comes from Odesa and was an architect in the past. She likes this work, but plans to return to architectural projects after the war.

Outside of work, the girl always volunteered a lot at the shelter, where dogs are fed and treated, sometimes she herself found a home for the animals or fostered them. After February 24, 2022, Khrystyna lost her job, so the girl had more time to help animals. This is how volunteering gradually turned into a new profession for Khrystyna — an animal catcher.

“A full-scale invasion began, and a lot of animals had to be evacuated. Later, we took them to shelters from the de-occupied territories as well. Then I started thinking globally about how to reduce the problem of the population of stray animals. Therefore, I got to know foreign volunteers who were ready to help with sterilization,” tells Khrystyna.

Mastering a profession that was new for her, the girl asked her colleagues about everything and also watched special videos on the Internet. Even at the beginning of her journey as a catcher, Khrystyna understood: it is very difficult to establish contact with most stray animals. Therefore, she bought the necessary equipment for catching and learnt in practice.

“I tried to say ‘come here, don’t be afraid’, but it doesn’t make sense. A wild dog looks into my eyes and sees a threat: I can catch it and lock it up somewhere. However, if it is very hungry, it will go to the smelly cat food, even in spite of its fear,” Khrystyna tells about her tricks.

The girl explains that it is cat food that most effectively attracts stray animals, even dogs. The secret here is the smell: the more fragrant the treat, the better it attracts the animal’s attention. According to this feature, even cheap sausage is superior to pieces of meat. And the consistency of the food is also important: the animal has to chew it for a long time on the spot, not grab it and run away. Therefore, catchers often use pates as bait.

Serhii is also from the south of Ukraine, from neighbouring Mykolaiv. Before the full-scale invasion, he worked as a photographer and videographer. He says that he could not even think that his life would change so dramatically. His path to becoming an animal catcher also began with volunteering.

“I came to my friend Anna Kurkurina and offered to help her with anything during the war. She had just begun an intensive process of sterilizing animals outside the city, and there was a problem: there was no one to catch them. Anna asked if I could do it, and I decided to give it a try. Experience came with time,” recalls Serhii.

The man says that the most important thing for him when catching animals is calmness. That is why he tries to clear his head of unnecessary thoughts when he goes to work.

“The animal feels your mood. Even from a distance of a few dozen metres, it understands what a person wants from it. If you are nervous, it will feel it and will not let you get close. If you know how to deal with emotions, then it is easier to catch an animal,” says Serhii.

Insights into the profession — from tools to risks

As a catcher, Serhii has already travelled all over the Mykolaiv region, helped animals from flooded Kherson and thus fulfilled orders in the east of the country. For example, in the Sumy region, he caught a huge Mastiff at the request of one of the shelters. It was this trip that the man remembers the most. He recalls that he had to drive almost across the country through snow and fog to fulfil this request. Several animal rights activists had already tried to catch the dog, but no one succeeded. Catching this dog really turned out to be an extra credit task. He even had to use a hypnotic: Serhii shot three times from a special anesthesia tube.

When catchers shoot hypnotics not from pneumatics, but from blow pipes, the animal can evade. It reacts faster than a needle with a hypnotic reaches it. Therefore, in order not to waste the drug, you need to get as close as possible to the animal. Serhii remembers: the first time he shot a dog, even with a hypnotic charge, he felt uneasy.

“I have the following point: if you can avoid shooting a dog [with a gun with a hypnotic], then I don’t do it. That’s more humane. The sound of gunshots can be traumatic for the animal, and it is better not to abuse of hypnotics,” says Serhii.

There is a detail in catching [an animal] with a hypnotic: a dog that has been hit does not fall asleep immediately. Meanwhile, the animal begins to run away, scared, and hides in places that are difficult for people to reach, such as in sewers or basements. Serhii says that sometimes you have to run a lot to catch the dog.

“Everything depends on the dog’s personality: some of them fall asleep instantly, and others run away, but there are still dogs “on adrenaline” — this hormone neutralises the anesthesia that we inject. Once I shot a dog three times with hypnotics, but it did not fall asleep. Then I couldn’t find it for a long time. Then I see: it is standing and looking at me, although by all accounts it should already have been lying down and sleeping,” tells Serhii. 

But for Khrystyna, it is mentally most difficult to work with nooses for catching animals. She says that a dog may bite its tongue or hit its muzzle in an attempt to free itself. It is difficult for the girl to look at it.

Khrystyna used to try to catch dogs with her hands, but now she has a lot of scars because of it, so she stopped doing so. She says: she was worried about every bite to avoid rabies. The work trip sometimes lasts up to a month, and the girl can’t go to the hospital there: there is not enough time or there is no hospital nearby.

“I barely convinced the doctors to give me a rabies vaccination. I told them that I worked in a war zone and caught animals biting me very often. The doctors replied: as long as there is no bite, we cannot vaccinate you. They said the drug was very expensive, and they didn’t want to waste it for no reason,” tells Khrystyna about her journey to rabies vaccination.

Fortunately, the girl eventually managed to convince the doctors with arguments that there were few people like her and every bite could be fatal for her.

Later, it saved Khrystyna’s life. Once she neglected the safety rules and did not wear rubber gloves while working with the dog. The girl touched its mucus and, without washing her hands, scratched her eye. The dog turned out to be rabid and eventually died, and Khrystyna received a new vaccination just a week after interacting with it. The catcher is sure: if it were not for the first vaccination, the infection could have already affected the brain during such a long period of time.

Even more than dog bites, the girl is afraid of cat scratches. She says that she does not understand this phenomenon, but their scratches are much more painful than dog bites. In addition, infectious irritations or purulent secretions appear as a result.

But bites and scratches are not the only dangers that threaten animal catchers, as they sometimes work just a few dozen kilometres from the places of hostilities. Therefore, in sterilization missions, you should not forget about your own safety: watch your feet carefully and react to extraneous sounds.

At the same time, Khrystyna says that sometimes it is easier to work near the demarcation line because there are no people. She explains: people often do not know about her profession and rush to protect animals, sometimes even with a fight.

“There was a situation when I shot a dog with a hypnotic. One old lady immediately ran up to me and cursed me for several generations,” says Khrystyna.

Serhii has the opposite opinion: “It is more difficult to work in frontline areas, as dogs are also stressed by explosions. They don’t understand what’s going on and panic.”

Dreams and senses in the work of catchers

Khrystyna emphasises: her dream as a professional catcher is to ensure that there are no stray animals left in Ukraine. The girl is convinced that people should adopt animals only after special training or surveys. A person must show that he/she can keep an animal and pay for its treatment. Sterilization also contributes to the reduction of stray animals. The girl had her own pet dog called Milady sterilized as well.

«I have a shepherd dog, and I sterilized her. I don’t need offspring from Milady. She is my friend, not a means of earning money on the breed,” explains Khrystyna.

Khrystyna and Serhii say that being a catcher is very exhausting. To stay in this business for a long time, you need to have stress resistance and endurance, and also understand the importance of your work.

“Few people are ready to do this job. There are people who do what thousands of others can do at work. And in order to become a catcher, you need more than just love for animals, you need a desire to understand how it works, an understanding of animal psychology,” says Khrystyna.

Serhii confirms the words of his colleague: “This is meticulous, dirty work. It takes physical and mental effort to climb through bushes, dumps and ditches to find dogs. But this is a way to help stray animals. As sometimes you see there are more and more of them, and you understand: you must solve this issue somehow.“

The man says that sometimes he has to perform more than his main duties: “Being a catcher means being a universal fighter.” For example, if a dog is injured or has an injured paw, the catcher also takes the animal to an X-ray.

It also happens that the work of catchers literally saves the lives of animals.

“Someone tied the dog’s muzzle with a piece of iron so that it could not open its mouth at all. Because of such a “muzzle mask”, the dog had not eaten anything for 2 weeks. The animal rights activists came, tried to catch it with their own hands, ran and fussed. The dog got scared and hid in an abandoned chicken coop. When I approached, the dog was sitting calmly, probably it decided to give up. We removed the piece of iron under anesthesia, and we saw that his face was cut to the bone,” says Serhii.

He is quite happy when such cases end happily: the dog not only survived, but also found a family.

The photoes of Serhii are from the photographer Gian Marco Benedetto

“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!