How Ukraine's dogs led resilience

NEW STRATEGY

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SOON after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv’s top diplomat made a very personal and little-known policy decision: He encouraged Ukraine's Foreign Ministry staff to bring their dogs to work.

Dmytro Kuleba’s rule meant employees didn’t have to leave their terrified dogs at home during missile and drone attacks.

And it meant Kuleba’s new rescue, a gray French bulldog named Marik, scooped from the wreckage of the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, would spend the next couple of years overhearing foreign policy discussions as he waddled around the office.

Such an arrangement might seem unusual for a foreign minister - but not in wartime Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion has made the security of pets a national priority. Families in front-line towns often flee Russian shelling with multiple pets in tow, and soldiers feed and care for those left behind. Volunteers then risk their lives to evacuate them to safer cities, where they are often adopted into Ukrainian families or sent abroad.