“Well, how could I leave them?”: how a retiree evacuated 20 animals out of flashpoint

Until recently, Vira Yastremska didn't want to leave her native Sievierodonetsk. She couldn't leave her huge fluffy family to chance. When the volunteers found and paid for the carrier, the lady took two dozen animals to safety—her own and more.

"It was tolerable" until it became unbearable

"'Vira, go. Go. Run away from Sievierodonetsk.' How can I leave the animals?" Vira's apartment was home to a dozen cats, and several dogs, and about the same number lived in the country house.

Yastremska's family has always had animals, and Vira and Yurii could never walk past the abandoned animals on the street. They took the underprivileged home, treated, neutered, castrated if necessary, and lovingly cared for them. The couple lived on two pensions: they spent one on animals, and the other was for them. Yurii died at the end of 2021. Vira began to take care of a large family on her own. She didn't have time to recover after the loss of her husband as the war started.

"'Let them out, let them run away,' an acquaintance told me. But it's like killing them. So I lived under shelling for two months."