An example of humanity

Every time they go to the ATO area and deliver humanitarian aid there, the volunteers try not to return empty-handed. According to them, the Donbas is now full of homeless animals. These are mostly cats and dogs abandoned by former owners in half-destroyed houses.

Volunteer Olena Tymoshenko told the press her family had saved 25 animals, which were taken out of the combat zone and transferred to reliable owners. “Children and animals suffer first. They do not understand why their world has changed and they have been abandoned. We deliver aid and I try to take the animals out of there on our way home. It is getting harder to do, as the situation in the ATO area has deteriorated. I do not know why former owners have not taken pets with them. I do not blame them, it is just that I do not understand them. Leave behind a blanket, a sack of potatoes or a pan, but take the dog, for it is a friend,” Tymoshenko said. The animals rescued by the Dnipropetrovsk volunteers include not only dogs and cats, as there are even a parrot and a turtle among them. “We found the turtle in an abandoned house; half-dead and cold, she barely moved. She is living at my sister’s house now, eats a lot of salad and walks around the place,” Tymoshenko told us.

One of the most famous animals to be taken from the ATO area is Labrador dog Anhelina, who even lent her name to the volunteer movement. Anhelina lived with the Right Sector soldiers in Pisky near Donetsk when the Los Angeles Times’ reporter Sergei Loiko photographed her. “The soldiers initially did not want to part with her, saying that the dog predicted shellings. Perhaps, she brought some family warmth to their lives that is so lacking at the front. However, after the area where the soldiers were stationed was destroyed by shelling, we took Anhelina away. She now lives with me,” Tymo-shenko said. She actively seeks new owners for every rescued animal, and having found one, keeps being interested in their fate.

She has not received any complaints of animal behavior yet, even though they have suffered a nervous stress due to being under fire in the combat zone. Cats and dogs quickly get used to new owners, take on weight and become more playful. The soldiers who transferred the animals to the volunteers also keep inquiring about their fates. For example, they ask how cat Pravosek (“Right Sector Member”) and cat Baton (“Loaf”), who once stole a loaf of white bread larger than himself, fare now. The soldiers ask to send them pictures of the animals they have come to like. The Dnipropetrovsk volunteers are currently looking for new owners for a few dogs taken out of the combat zone. They sometimes have to keep up to 10 animals at home.