This is the news we have always dreaded.
While carrying out a mission to rescue animals from the frontline in Ukraine, Ruslan the team leader and Florian, a French Canadian volunteer, were ambushed by a Russian drone. When their animal ambulance was attacked, both were seriously injured and one dog died.
Animal rescue missions must not stop even though the Russians wait in ambush.
Our partners’ ambulances come under frequent attack and we repair and replace them whenever we can. But now a new tactic has emerged – this time an ambush drone was hiding in the bushes, emerging to hit the ambulance head-on.
Our team has been on the ground in Ukraine since the outbreak of the war more than four years ago. One of the most terrible things about this conflict is the fate of animals on the frontline, left behind when their owners are forced to flee. Working with our partner, Animal Rescue Kharkiv (ARK), we run as many rescue missions as we can. We continue even though the missions are increasingly dangerous and the animal ambulances are coming under increasing attacks by drones.
This is what’s left after a Russian drone ambushed our partner’s animal ambulance mid-mission, a stark reminder of just how dangerous rescue work in Ukraine has become. With your help, we’ll replace it and keep our rescue missions going. Source: ARK
Animals are not soldiers, they are innocent victims and they need our help.
We will not stop rescuing animals from the debris of war-ruined villages on the frontline and we ask that animal lovers stand with us on this. This ambulance was shattered but with your help, we will buy another one and keep rescue missions going.
Our team risks Ukraine’s frontline to save animals who have no other hope.
Countless animals remain trapped in devastated communities – hungry, frightened, injured and abandoned as the fighting moves around them. Our team brings terrified dogs, cats and other animals out of the devastation to safety and veterinary care.
Now the rescue missions have been brought to a halt.
But the animals are still there.
Animals are waiting in the ruins – frightened, hungry and alone.
They are waiting in shattered homes, deserted streets and ruined villages. They cannot understand the explosions around them. They do not know why their families have disappeared.
Every day that the rescue team remains off the road, is another day when animals may be left without food, treatment or any chance of escape.
We must get this team mobile again as quickly as possible. We must give the remaining rescuers the vehicle they need to return to the front line and continue the work for which their colleagues have already paid such a terrible price.
A Russian drone attacked and destroyed our partner’s animal ambulance, but the animals still waiting for rescue need us to keep going. Source: ARK
Please, will you help us put another ambulance on the road?
The people who undertake this work are extraordinarily brave. They knowingly place themselves in danger because they refuse to abandon helpless animals to the horrors of war. Ruslan and Florian have paid an awful price for caring about animals. Their ambulance is wrecked and they face a long recovery but the rescue missions must continue because our determination to save animals has not been destroyed.
