February 2025 marked three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a conflict that has impacted countless lives, including those of vulnerable animals.
News articles featuring the plight of Ukraine’s animals no longer seem to be prominent on global media websites, but the situation is still dire.
Many dogs, cats and other animals have been displaced, abandoned, or traumatised, with thousands of them still living on the frontline – or dangerously close to it. Evacuating these poor animals involves serious challenges, including:
- Shelling, missile strikes, and landmines make it hazardous for rescuers to reach them.
- Many areas can’t be accessed easily due to destroyed roads and bridges, blockades, or restrictions.
- Ruined or abandoned clinics has led to limited veterinary care in frontline regions.
- Animals experience extreme stress and trauma, making it harder to transport them.
- Rescuers work with limited funding and rely on donations.
Despite the obstacles, animal rescue volunteers continue their life-saving work, often at great risk to their physical and psychological wellbeing. Witnessing suffering and making life-or-death decisions can take a severe emotional toll and rescuers often work under extreme pressure, potentially leading to burnout and PTSD.
Who are Ukraine’s animal rescue heroes?
Naturewatch Foundation has been working to improve animal welfare in Ukraine since 1994. Over the years, we’ve met many incredible people who dedicate their lives to the country’s animals. When the war began, we immediately adapted our work to focus on where our help was most needed.
We began 2025 by continuing to support our courageous partners in Ukraine, including Animal Rescue Kharkiv and the Step shelter in Brody.
Animal Rescue Kharkiv
Our friends at Animal Rescue Kharkiv (ARK) evacuate and treat hundreds of animals from Ukraine’s frontline.
ARK was founded in 2016 and, before the war broke out, they rescued animals in Kharkiv. Now, the scale of their work is on another level, with soldiers and civilians regularly telling them about animals who need to be rescued. On average, they carry out around 25 evacuation missions each month, depending on the intensity of the situation on the front.
Their life-saving work doesn’t only involve animals. On the approach to the city of Pokrovsk, a civilian car was hit by a drone. ARK’s animal rescue team was the only one nearby. Thanks to the team’s quick response, two injured passengers were taken to a stabilisation point for treatment and survived. In another situation, ARK rescued an 80-year-old woman, along with her three cats and three dogs.
As well as their crucial evacuation work, ARK runs a veterinary clinic and a rehabilitation centre, which also serves as an animal therapy facility for soldiers and the public.
Do you have a question for an ARK volunteer in Kharkiv? Let us know!
The Step shelter
The Step shelter is in the town of Brody, which isn’t on the frontline but still faces immense challenges. Oksana Chorniy and her team take in animals from the local area, as well as dogs brought from frontline regions by soldiers and police officers.
With so many people displaced, and numerous animals abandoned, lost, or left behind by owners who have died, the shelter is now more overcrowded with animals than ever before. As well as dogs, they also take care of cats, goats, horses, and birds.
Despite the difficulties, the team at the Step shelter are doing their utmost to care for the animals and provide them with the best conditions they can.
But their work doesn’t stop at animal care – they are also committed to long-term change. The shelter conducts educational activities for children in their community to help shape a generation that treats animals with kindness and respect.
Their dedication is a vital part of building a more humane and compassionate future for Ukraine.
Do you have a question for the team at the Step shelter in Brody? Let us know!
What can you do?
1. Help keep Ukraine’s animals and their rescuers in the public eye!
The animal rescuers of Ukraine must not be forgotten. These extraordinary people risk their lives daily to save terrified and injured animals from the frontline. As the war continues, their bravery and dedication deserve to be recognised, and that’s why we’ll be featuring them in this summer’s issue of Naturewatch Foundation’s Watch Magazine.
Do you have a question for an animal rescue volunteer? What would you like to ask them? Send us your query, and we’ll include a selection in an interview with Ukraine’s rescue volunteers.
We’ve put together some suggestions, but we’re sure there’s a lot more you’d like to know!
- How do they manage to capture injured or traumatised animals?
- What’s the most unexpected animal they’ve evacuated?
- What do they do if they can’t find veterinary care near the combat zones?
- How difficult is it to find new homes for rescued animals?
Just email info@naturewatch.org or call us on 01242 252 871.
(Catch up on the previous, first-ever issue of Watch Magazine, which features a chat with Natalie, our Ukraine-based campaign coordinator for Eastern Europe.)
2. Sign up for campaign updates
If you don’t already receive our latest news by email, sign up for updates – we’ll send you a digital version of Watch Magazine as soon as it’s published! (If you would prefer to have a paper copy sent to you by post, please get in touch via the contact details above.)
3. Please donate to help support our work
Your generous contributions fund our animal welfare campaigns in the UK, Eastern Europe and worldwide. We can’t support awe-inspiring organisations like ARK and Step without you and we’re sincerely grateful for every gift, large and small. Please donate here.
4. Share our posts on social media
Reposting our social media posts is a great way to raise awareness of the heroic work of Ukraine’s animal rescuers. Follow us here for the latest news:
Read about how we’re supporting our animal welfare partners in Ukraine.
