Media Center Ukraine Producer Department

Khrystyna Drahomaretska, a 28-year-old trained architect, has stepped away from her profession to rescue animals amid Ukraine’s war, where she works as a stray animal catcher and evacuates pets from active combat areas.

She carries on despite constant danger from enemy shelling. In Toretsk in the Donetsk region, three russian guided aerial bombs detonated near her. In Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region, she sustained shrapnel wounds while rescuing animals as russian forces hammered the area with mortar fire.

Originally focused on sterilization missions, Khrystyna has spent the past year leading evacuation efforts, pulling abandoned and stray animals out of frontline zones and finding them foster or permanent homes.

She also founded a shelter in the Odesa region, where many of the evacuated animals are taken for treatment, socialization, and rehoming, about 70 percent eventually find adoptive families abroad. The facility currently houses around 250 dogs.

Journalists interested in learning more about her work or arranging an interview can reach out to speak with her online or in person in Odesa, Kyiv, or Kharkiv, by appointment.

For reference: Khrystyna Drahomaretska conducts her rescue operations in partnership with the 12 Vartovykh Charitable Foundation and Animal Rescue Kharkiv. She is also part of the UAnimals rescue mission.

• animals
• casualties
• women
• Kharkiv
• Kyiv
• Odesa
• evacuation

If you are interested in this topic, you can obtain the subjects’ contacts from the Producer Department of Media Center Ukraine.

Adaptive cross-country skiing training sessions for military veterans are taking place in the Ukrainian capital, led by Oleksii Prokopenko, head coach of Ukraine’s national cross-country skiing team for the 2025 Invictus Games and founder of the Endurance School.

The free year-round sessions, held in both summer and winter, make use of specialized adaptive ski gear, including chair for seated skiing along with tailored cross-country skis. These tools, part of established techniques for handicapped skiing, enable people with reduced mobility to participate fully in the sport.

Prokopenko has recently introduced adaptive ski touring, a hybrid of cross-country and downhill skiing, to the program. Veterans with amputations are among the participants training with this equipment.

Journalists wishing to cover the sessions can arrange access in Kyiv by prior appointment.

• culture
• Kyiv

If you are interested in this topic, you can obtain the subjects’ contacts from the Producer Department of Media Center Ukraine.

The B50 community, a grassroots volunteer network born in the opening days of russia’s full-scale invasion, has evolved from post-liberation cleanup efforts to producing critical military supplies for Ukrainian troops.

The group took its name from the code-name “B50,” the clandestine designation for a Territorial Defense Forces headquarters in Kyiv where its founders first connected in the chaotic early weeks of the war.

After Ukrainian forces pushed russian troops out of the Kyiv region, B50 volunteers were among the first on the ground in Bucha, Irpin, Vorzel, and Hostomel, helping clear rubble and debris from devastated areas.

In the war’s initial phase, the community concentrated on humanitarian work: traveling to recently deoccupied towns and villages around Kyiv to remove wreckage, repair shelters, and even brighten children’s bomb shelters with decorations.

As the conflict wore on, B50 redirected its efforts toward direct support for the armed forces. Today, volunteers repair specialized equipment before it’s delivered to frontline units, assemble batteries for drones, weave camouflage nets, and address a range of other urgent needs expressed by the Ukrainian military.

Those wishing to connect with the B50 team, whether online or in person in Kyiv, can do so by prior arrangement.

• volunteers
• Kyiv

If you are interested in this topic, you can obtain the subjects’ contacts from the Producer Department of Media Center Ukraine.

A memorial march honoring Mikhail Zhiznevsky, a Belarusian who became one of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred during Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity, and more than 80 Belarusian warriors killed in russia’s war against Ukraine is set for January 26 in the capital.

The annual event will retrace the route used in 2014 to accompany Zhiznevsky’s body after he was fatally shot by security forces on Instytutska Street during the Maidan protests.

The procession will begin at St. Michael’s Square.

• dead
• Kyiv

If you are interested in this topic, you can obtain the subjects’ contacts from the Producer Department of Media Center Ukraine.