Even after a night of heavy bombardment, Olga wakes up at dawn and gets ready to feed Odesa’s cats. Each day, she tends to the 50 cats that roam the debris and burnt-out buildings in her neighbourhood, a consistent target of Vladimir Putin’s bombs. Olga’s husband and son have both been dead for some time now, yet she doesn’t feel lonely – and she says she has long stopped panicking when air raid sirens go off.
Even before the war, Ukraine had a large stray animal population – estimates put the number of dogs at up to 200,000 and many more stray cats – roaming the streets, according to the Naturewatch Foundation. Since the start of the war, thousands more pet dogs and cats have been lost or abandoned. Experts have told The Independent that people who stay in their war-torn towns and cities often end up feeding dozens of animals despite having very limited resources of their own.
The work begins at 9am: “I go out to feed them. I start from the furthest points and end by the sea,” she says. Olga feeds the cats in her yard, neighbouring gardens, parking lots, and on the slopes along the way to the sea.
Her favourite cat Lora, who she has nicknamed Chernushka, survived a tumour on the neck the size of a walnut. Since then, Olga has become very attached. ”She loves pâté and the tastiest food I can give her because she went through many surgeries. I had to nurse her back to health for a long time, so she became like a sick child – the most precious one.” It is this love of animals that has stopped her from leaving Odesa despite the dangers; her biggest fear is not for her own safety – it’s leaving the animals defenceless.
While not on the frontline, Odesa has been targeted by Russia with intensified strikes in an attempt to strangle Ukraine’s commercial links with the outside world. Attacks have taken place along the coastline, targeting vessels and port infrastructure while Moscow tries to protect its own ships through the Azov-Black Sea basin. On the other side of the city and totally unbeknownst to Olga, 73-year-old Nataliia remains a devoted carer to 13 pets and 27 strays.
The war has a very negative effect on my health and the state of my animals; they become nervous. I have to spend a lot of time monitoring their wellbeing and calming them,” she says. Carrying water up to the eighth floor for the stray animals is tough – when the water in their bowls freezes, I have to thaw it and bring out hot water.
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