Themes by tag: evacuation

An equestrian sports complex in the Kharkiv region survived occupation and was left without management: in 2022, the owner abandoned it on the eve of the region’s liberation from russian forces. Criminal proceedings were opened against the owner. The horses were cared for by stableman Oleksii Boliukh despite the absence of salary.

The complex was placed under arrest, which prevented volunteers from evacuating the horses to a safer location for several years. However, this year the situation due to ongoing shelling worsened, and the stableman’s house was destroyed by a russian strike. As a result, the animals were evacuated.

The operation was planned to be completed in four days but lasted ten due to constant shelling. Military personnel, the police evacuation unit “White Angels,” volunteers, and humanitarian organizations joined the rescue effort. Ultimately, the 19 horses were transported to the Kharkiv Hippodrome, where they are now under the care of the animal welfare organization “Animals 911 Ukraine.”

Interviews with the volunteer team are available both online and offline in Kharkiv by prior arrangement.

• animals
• occupation
• volunteers
• Kharkiv
• evacuation

Volodymyr Aleksandrov is 47 years old. He is originally from Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi, where he was mobilized in May 2025. He joined the 112th Territorial Defense Brigade and carried out combat missions in the Donetsk region together with his fellow soldiers.

Volodymyr and his comrade Ihor, who is currently considered missing in action, were holding a position. That day, food supplies were dropped to them by drone. The package had to be retrieved near one of the buildings. When the soldiers approached the structure, they came under automatic gunfire. Both Ukrainian fighters were wounded — the russians decided to keep Volodymyr alive and take him captive.

The occupiers inspected the Ukrainian position, where there was a generator, water, communication equipment, and food, and decided to move there together with the wounded Volodymyr. For several days, the russians forced the Ukrainian soldier to contact his command and assure them that everything was fine. Eventually, the food and water at the position ran out and the power supply failed. The uninjured russians then abandoned their wounded comrades along with Volodymyr and went in search of water. The Ukrainian serviceman persuaded two wounded russian soldiers to surrender to Ukrainian forces. The Defense Forces of Ukraine prepared an evacuation operation, involving more than three dozen personnel, including drone operators and unmanned ground vehicle crews, medics, technicians, and reconnaissance units. Ultimately, Volodymyr and one enemy soldier were brought back to Ukrainian positions.

An interview with Volodymyr can be arranged online by prior appointment and in coordination with the press officer.

• casualties
• military
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• evacuation

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

Yevhen Tkachov manages the Proliska humanitarian center in Donetsk Oblast. A veterinarian by trade and a volunteer by calling, he has spent 11 years evacuating civilians from towns on the front lines. His mission intensified after russia’s full-scale invasion, and he worked in Bakhmut, Siversk, and Soledar. He delivers aid and provides care for people and animals affected by the conflict.

Yevhen continues these evacuations today, facing challenges like russian drone attacks and the aggressor country’s blatant disregard for humanitarian law. According to Yevhen, evacuations are also hindered by the people themselves, who are difficult to persuade to leave despite all the dangers.

Years before the full-scale war, Yevhen established a hospice for the elderly in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk oblast. It was destroyed by russian forces in 2022, forcing the relocation of its patients to the Khmelnytskyi oblast. His family, including his son, now helps sustain this vital work.

Yevhen Tkachov is available for interviews online or in person by appointment.

• animals
• casualties
• volunteers
• evacuation

Participants: 

– Darya Kasyanova, Chairperson of the Board of the Ukrainian Child Rights Network, Program Director of SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine;

– Volodymyr Yavorskyy, Program Manager at Center for Civil Liberties;

– Roman Buhaiov, Evacuation Worker and Security Expert at East SOS Charitable Foundation;

– Yevhen Kaplin, Head of the Proliska Humanitarian Mission, Partner NGO of UNHCR. 

Key topics:

– Ensuring local implementation of Resolutions No. 1307 and No. 1420 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine so that no child remains in combat zones due to lack of transport, information, or distrust of the evacuation system;

– Strategies for establishing effective communication with families still in dangerous areas;

– Assessing the necessity and feasibility of forced evacuation and determining which populations it should cover. 

Journalists are required to register for the event. The event will be held without simultaneous translation.

• Kyiv
• evacuation

Before russia’s full-scale invasion, Olena and Valentyn Bielozorenko had spent 11 years building their Lymanska Koza eco-farm in Stanislav, a village in the Kherson region. The couple raised 30 goats, 11 dogs, and 10 cats, made artisanal cheese, and hosted tours for children and adults. But when the war began, their thriving farm suddenly found itself under occupation.

For eight and a half months, Olena and Valentyn lived surrounded by russian forces, surviving by bartering food with neighbors. When Ukrainian troops liberated the village, they stayed on for another year, enduring relentless shelling. Several strikes hit their property, killing one animal, burning their feed, and leaving Valentyn with a concussion.

By October 2023, the couple decided they could no longer stay. They evacuated to the Kyiv region, where fellow displaced Ukrainians from Donetsk welcomed them and offered a farmhouse and land free of charge. Within a year, their herd had doubled in size, and life began to take root again.

Now, the Bielozorenkos are planning to open a rehabilitation center for Ukrainian soldiers on their new farm, hoping to turn a place once marked by survival into one of healing and recovery.

Olena and Valentyn Bielozorenko are available for online interviews.

For reference: russian forces occupied Kherson early in the full-scale invasion, on March 1, 2022. Ukrainian forces liberated the city on November 11, 2022, but russian troops continue to shell the region regularly.

• animals
• occupation
• russian crimes
• Kherson
• evacuation

Maryna and Serhii Vovkodav, parents of five daughters, once ran a small business and lived in their own home in Orikhiv, Zaporizhia region.

Then the war upended everything. In April 2022, volunteers helped the family evacuate, and they settled into an empty apartment in Zaporizhia, with no furniture or appliances. They had to cook on the windowsill and eat meals at a bedside table.

By chance, Maryna learned about a program offering housing for displaced families at zero rent, with ownership granted after five years. She applied, and the family was eventually selected.

The new home is part of a micro-settlement built last year in Chernihiv by the District #1 Charitable Foundation, which constructed 13 houses for families displaced from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and other regions. Today, the foundation has the capacity to build 50-100 houses annually, each adapted to the needs of different families.

The Vovkodav family now lives in their new home in the Kyiv region. By prior arrangement, journalists can meet with them in person.

• children
• reconstruction
• Kyiv
• evacuation

Since 2014, Dmytro Lozhenko, a Kharkiv resident, has been helping people with limited mobility, the elderly, prisoners, and individuals struggling with alcohol or drug addiction.

In Kharkiv, Dmytro established shelters for those he supported. When the full-scale invasion began, the people he had helped became volunteers themselves, initially focusing on evacuation and reconstruction efforts. Through his NGO, “I Am Saved,” over 40,000 people have been evacuated from frontline areas and more than 5,000 homes have had their roofs and windows repaired.

Recently, Dmytro and his volunteers started a new initiative involving free salvage operations in Kharkiv’s war-damaged buildings scheduled for demolition. They carefully collect personal belongings and transport them to storage facilities where items are kept until owners can retrieve them for their new homes.

Dmytro Lozhenko is available for interviews online or in person in Kharkiv by prior arrangement.

• reconstruction
• volunteers
• Kharkiv
• evacuation

Lutsk resident Tetiana Pototska had been originally running a travel agency that specialized in organizing pilgrimage trips abroad until February 2022, Tetiana shifted her focus when the full-scale invasion began. Moved by a friend’s inability to transport her father’s body from Kharkiv to Lutsk, Tetiana stepped in to assist and has since been tirelessly evacuating fallen soldiers’ remains and transporting them to morgues.

Beyond her duties in retrieving the fallen, Tetiana extends her aid to Ukrainians trapped in occupied regions, particularly those with limited mobility, helping them return to government-controlled territory. Additionally, she devotes herself to caring for the children of fallen defenders, arranging celebratory events and outings to the seaside for them.

Through her volunteer efforts, more than 50 individuals with amputations, including civilians, women and children among them, as well as military personnel have been transported to Poland, where they received free prosthetic care through an international initiative.

Those wishing to interview Tetiana can reach her both offline in Lutsk or through online channels. She is gearing up for another journey to Eastern Ukraine soon.

• dead
• volunteers
• women
• Lutsk
• evacuation

Before russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Myrnohrad in Donetsk Oblast had a population of roughly 50,000. At the time, every third household subscribed to Ridne Misto, a local newspaper with a circulation of 6,000 and a staff of seven, led by editor Maksym Zabielia.

Zabielia recalls sending the newspaper to print on February 23, 2022. The next day, the Kharkiv-based printing house stopped responding to messages. Since then, Ridne Misto has relied on the Kramatorsk Printing House, which stepped in and kept the paper going.

In early summer 2024, the editorial team was forced to leave Myrnohrad due to a mandatory evacuation order. In August, the newspaper’s office was destroyed by enemy shelling. Today, the relocated newsroom operates with a staff of four. The paper is no longer distributed in Myrnohrad, but volunteers continue delivering it to hubs for internally displaced people. Despite the setbacks, the team has no plans to stop printing. Zabielia says they feel a deep sense of responsibility to their readers.

Zabielia is available for interviews both online and in person, by prior arrangement, in Odesa or Kyiv.

For reference: Myrnohrad, located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, remains under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The city lies approximately one kilometer from the front line. As of late 2024, about 3,000 civilians remained in the area.

• culture
• russian crimes
• Kyiv
• Odesa
• evacuation