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Ukraine’s ATO veterans go from protecting their country to protecting its cats

“Don’t buy joy, take it from a shelter!”

They don’t only protect their country. In their regular lives, some veterans of the conflict in eastern Ukraine help homeless animals find a family. This all started when they found five abandoned kittens next to one of their houses.

“They are somewhere between 3.5 and 4 months old. No passport. They didn’t have any birth certificates. They only had a dirty bag and some nice people put out a bowl with some wet bread,” says Viktoriya Kolosovska, Volunteer.

“Don’t buy happiness, take it from a shelter!”
“Don’t buy happiness, take it from a shelter!”

Since then, the life of these kittens has improved. The woman nursed them back to health and fed them. And now these and other homeless fluffy animals seek new owners. Ukrainian servicemen are among the volunteers. The animal defenders turned to veterans who had served in some of the hottest points of the conflict in eastern Ukraine — Ilovaisk and Pisky. They offered the veterans a chance to take part in a very unusual photo session. Oleksiy Rubets immediately agreed:

“I like cats most of all. They change with age, they are very interesting, they have more of a personality. They can even hit back.”

Three more servicemen together with Oleksiy posed for photographers. All of them, experienced veterans of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, held defenseless kittens in their hands. And the result of the photo session was several hundred pictures. Photographer Yuliya is satisfied with the work:

“They are non-professional models, nevertheless, it was very easy to work with them. Although, I can not say the same about animals. It was difficult to work with them because they are kittens.”

“Don’t buy joy, take it from a shelter!”
“Don’t buy joy, take it from a shelter!”

As soon as the photos have been published, three kittens got new families. Now the task is to find a home for Kleo, Sarah, Naomi and a few hundred more kittens.

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