In Ukraine’s frontline areas, animals are often left without owners after shelling, deaths and emergency evacuations. In Kharkiv, despite shrinking funding, staff losses and constant strikes on the city, the municipal shelter known as the Animal Handling Center continues to operate. It currently houses about 500 dogs and 100 cats.
Its director, Yulia, recalls that in the spring of 2022, when Russian forces approached Kharkiv, staff were sometimes unable to reach the shelter because roads were blocked and the city was under attack. For a time, only the watchman fed the animals, and later several workers walked about two kilometers to the kennels each day. Volunteers then helped move around 200 dogs to safer places.
According to Yulia, the shelter often receives pets from families who lost their homes, as well as animals whose owners were killed. In some cases, relatives or the owners themselves later return for them after finding housing. One family from Vovchansk took back an injured dog after treatment, while a man managed to reclaim his Central Asian shepherd dog after two and a half years, during which he kept visiting the animal while living in a dormitory.
Animals are also evacuated from combat zones by Animal Guardians, a foundation created by Kharkiv resident Olena after the start of the full-scale invasion. Together with a colleague, she removes animals from dangerous parts of the Kharkiv region, then treats, vaccinates and socializes them. The foundation’s shelter now cares for about 130 cats and 15 dogs.
One of the hardest rescue operations involved a herd of horses left unattended in the village of Slobozhanske. Some had wandered into fields that had not been cleared of mines. Olena said that while searching, the team saw the bodies of cows that had been blown up by mines, while guided bombs and FPV drones were striking the area in May 2024. Even so, the volunteers managed to find the herd leader and bring most of the horses out. They later succeeded in evacuating a she-camel found there as well.
“We are bursting at the seams, all the enclosures are overcrowded. They are fed and kept warm. But it is not a home,” Yulia says about conditions at the Kharkiv shelter.
Finding new homes has become increasingly difficult: many people no longer have housing of their own, and taking responsibility for a pet under constant bombardment is a hard choice. Shelters try to send animals to safer regions of Ukraine and to European Union countries, but since the summer of 2023 export requirements again include microchipping, rabies vaccination, an antibody titer test and other veterinary paperwork. Staff say a future owner usually has to pay about 350–400 euros for transport and required procedures.
The foundation and the municipal shelter survive mainly on donations. Volunteers continue to receive new war-affected animals almost every day and search for families for them, because even a safe and warm enclosure cannot replace a home.