At the beginning of the full-fledged war the largest shelter for homeless animals in Ukraine, which is located in Kyiv province, found itself under temporary occupation by Russians. Soon afterwards animal food ran out, which made employees of the shelter roam through neighboring villages in search of at least some food products. No shops were working, which also meant that they were forced to search for the things they needed on their own, often risking their lives
The head of the shelter ‚Sirius‘, Oleksandra Mezinova, says that sometimes she had to do this at the point of an automatic rifle.
‚We learned that Russian troops had entered the village and that they had already set up three checkpoints. I was going from village to village in search of food for animals. I had to pass two checkpoints. The first one was really terrible. As soon as they saw that I and another girl were approaching them, they pointed their arms at us’.
With every week hunger affected animals more and more. They also were subjected to a great deal of stress due to incessant explosions. Some of the animals were trying to gnaw through the net of the aviary and run away.
One day Russian troops entered the premises of the shelter, having taken phones of the employees away and destroyed them.
‚For some reason unknown to me they did not shoot our dogs. We were really surprised to see our dogs not barking and remaining silent. I guess this was something that saved them. I was later told that when Russians were passing through villages and heard dogs barking, they threw a grenade right into the yard’.
Watch our video to learn more about how the shelter survived the occupation.
