[Animals] Dodging Russian bombs, these volunteers risk it all to save Ukraine's animals

[Dr@g0n]

DNIPRO, Ukraine — When Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February, Petya Petrova didn't hesitate. She and a team of other German animal rights activists rushed to the Polish-Ukrainian border to help with what would become an unprecedented influx of refugees, many of them bringing animals. "I was the first team member to arrive at the Polish border on Feb. 25 to welcome Ukrainians arriving with their pets,

" says the 34-year-old. After a few months, the animal rights group she was with, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, pulled back from the border, calling its employees back to Germany. But Petrova didn't think that was the right thing to do. "My whole existence was linked to this war and I started feeling very emotional about this conflict," she says. So she quit her job, moved to Kyiv and started working full time to evacuate animals from areas of Ukraine under attack. The Russian war in Ukraine has gone on almost seven months. Thousands of people have been killed and millions have been forced to leave their homes. But the war is also taking a huge toll on animals — not just domestic pets, but also farm animals and wildlife.
link:https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/09/20/1119965460/russia-ukraine-war-animal-pet-rescue-photos