Staying in Orikhiv to save animals

The passage to Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast is now restricted. Because of this, we were accompanied by law enforcement officers during our trip to the town.  They brought some pet food provided by volunteers, and we also bought some yummies for the furry ones. The policemen explained that, regretfully, moving all the animals out of the frontline area was impossible now, as all the shelters were full. So, the only option was to feed them. 

“WE’VE STAYED ALIVE THANKS TO ANIMALS” 

We enter the town to the sound of explosions.  “It’s a guided bomb.  Better not stay here too long,” the policemen say.  We have been to Orikhiv recently, but the town is becoming unrecognizable because of the recent destruction.  The enemy has been hitting it with artillery and attacking it from airplanes. Before the war, about 14 to 15 thousand people lived in Orikhiv, and now it’s down to a thousand. The Lysenkos, Yurii and Liubov, are among them.  They took care of the animals that were left behind.

As soon as we drove up to the Lysenkos’ house, several dogs and cats ran out into the street, followed by the masters of the house.

“There are three or four families left on our street, eight people in all,” says Liubov, “and there used to be more than a hundred, almost two hundred to be exact. All the rest have left.  Everyone made their choice, and we made ours.  Each time our street gets hit by shelling; people would say. ‘Well, will those Lysenkos come to their senses?  Will they leave now?’  But here we are… We’ve installed the stove, nailed up the windows and wait for victory.”

The woman recalls that when the war started, she and her husband were in despair, not knowing what to do.  Then they went to church.  And now, she says, they’ve become used to it.

“We feed 50 cats and about 15 to 18 dogs.  We don’t know where to put them all. To be honest, there are many chores to be done at home: planting a garden, cleaning the house… We are busy from morning till evening.  We cook three or four pots of porridge with broth from chicken legs for the cats and dogs, then we have about three hours of free time to cook something for ourselves, and, once again, we have to feed them. It gets dark earlier now, so we barely have time,” she says.

Before the war, the couple had a dog and seven cats. They joke that they loved animals even then.

“Ryzhik, Pushok ― the one that is a little deaf.  Barsik, Bushenka, Pasha… I count them when I come to feed them.  Sometimes, twenty would come to eat instead of thirty cats in this yard. I tell my husband that there are not enough of them, and he says that they are in another yard. In the morning, Yurii is off to feed the dogs, there is a house down the street, and they run after him in a pack, then sit near the yard and wait.  We can’t move them out and we can’t leave them unattended either.  Even though they say that this is not a reason to stay here, perhaps, we stayed alive thanks to animals,” adds Liuba.

EVERY BUILDING IS DAMAGED AND PATCHED UP 

On September 2, the house of their neighbour, Valerii Pavlenko, was hit.

“It was a guided bomb that destroyed my house. There isn’t roof or windows or doors left. It is sad. I wasn’t at home at the time, I was at my neighbours’ place.  That’s why I am alive,” says Valerii.

Valerii

We met him by chance ― he was riding a bicycle towards his home.  The man is not going to leave Orikhiv.  He says that, firstly, he has nowhere to go and, secondly, they wouldn’t cope without him here.  After all, Valerii works at the local water utility company, where water is pumped and delivered by water trucks to people each day.

“The enemy is shelling us all the time, but we are past being afraid,” the man says and smiles.

We ask him where he is going to spend the winter.  He says that he stays in the outbuilding so far. He hopes that the winter will not be too severe.

“If it gets really bad, we will hide in the basement both from shelling and frosty weather,” he adds.

While talking to people, we hear the sounds of artillery fire.

Law enforcement officials say that not only there is a lot of destruction in the city, but also every building has been damaged and “patched up” at least once.

Recalling the bombardment of her neighbour’s house, Liubov Lysenko notes that the explosion was so powerful that the entire street shook.

“The blast wave was terrible. I was at home with my husband. It was horrible.  The ceiling and plaster fell on me, but, thank God, we are alive. People came running and shouting, ‘Are you alive?’ And we shouted back that we were. The smoke was standing up,” the woman recounts her experience.

The Lysenkos sustained concussion then. Their other neighbour was seriously wounded during one of these attacks and lost his arm. After that, he and his family left the town.

“We get shelled every day. Today, we had the cluster ones,” say the townsmen.

Yurii recently celebrated his birthday. He was given a screw gun, because each day something needs to be fixed in the town and there is no way to do it without a toolkit.

The residents of Orikhiv are very happy to welcome the guests and tell them about their life in the unconquerable town. However, staying there for long is impossible now. Explosions are going off all the time, and there is no telling where the next shell will land.

Law enforcement officials say that they try to bring at least pet food regularly and, once it becomes possible, will help to move the animals out.

Svitlana Sopoleva

Svitlana Sopoleva, a dog handler who accompanied us to Orikhiv, said on the way home that she would go back to the town in a few days and take three cats to her place. The policewoman said that she already had three rescued cats at home, but just couldn’t stand aside.

Olha Zvonarova, Zaporizhzhia

 Photo by Dmytro Smolienko