FOUR-LEGGED HOSTAGES OF WAR
ALM No.91, July 2026
ESSAYS
A hot August 2014 in occupied Donbas. The air temperature is above thirty degrees. Donbas has been living under the sounds of war for several months. Explosions and artillery shelling can be heard almost every day. People try not to go outside without necessity.
Today there is no electricity in our neighborhood. Probably somewhere a shell cut a cable or a substation was damaged. And this means that the usual conveniences are once again unavailable. I sit at home and, out of boredom, look out the window.
Suddenly, two unfamiliar purebred dogs run into the courtyard of our house. Obviously, they were abandoned, but they are still clean and not thin.
The black dog looks like a retriever. The brown spotted dog has a beautiful chain, and its tail is short. Later, I looked up dog breeds on the Internet and found out that the spotted dog is a Kurzhaar. I saw this breed for the first time.
The dogs ran up to the garbage bin. But they didn't find any food. Since the start of the war, only a third of the residents have remained in our apartment building — the rest moved to nearby calm towns. Now the trash is thrown out rarely, and the bins are almost empty. The dogs ran further.
Interestingly, the angry yard dog named Boris didn't even growl at the strangers. Could it be that he understands that dogs are in a desperate situation?
The mass evacuation of people from the city has created a terrible problem — abandoned pets. Stray dogs have always been in the city, but now there are many times more of them. Dozens of hungry, aggressive animals, abandoned by owners who left to seek a safe life, have filled the yards and streets.
During the day, the dogs somehow hide in the shade. But after darkness falls, it has become dangerous for people to leave their homes. Forming packs, the dogs chase anyone who comes in their way. Sometimes they meet passersby with loud barking, sometimes with angry growling, and sometimes with outright attacks.
Animals become especially aggressive during shelling. Explosions frighten dogs a lot. In a panic, they run to building entrances and basements, trying to find shelter in them. At such moments, frightened animals often attack people and bite them.
Some act radically, scaring away dogs... a burst from a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Everyone understands who in our turbulent times openly walks around with weapons and does not hesitate to use them. It is said that a burst of automatic fire pierces a dog, and it dies for a long time, bleeding.
I saw packs of stray dogs, among which purebred domestic dogs were running. Departing residents throw not only dogs and cats onto the street, but even parrots. In winter, most pets will not survive the cold and hunger. This is yet another terrible and disgusting face of this undeclared war.
The day before, my acquaintances witnessed an unpleasant incident — a pack of dogs attacked a group of passersby. A child was injured, receiving a serious bite. The father tried to immediately call emergency services. But he was clearly explained a truth known to all city residents: medical professionals only respond to gunshot wounds.
The man tried to get help elsewhere and called the militants' headquarters. What exactly they told him, acquaintances do not know. However, the scream of the enraged father, interspersed with choice curses, was heard throughout the area. The story ended with the man having to walk the child home after unsuccessful attempts to reach anyone and call a taxi.
After such incidents, people no longer fear shell explosions, but they are afraid of dying at home from appendicitis, a heart attack, or a stroke. If you are not fighting in the trenches for the Donetsk ‘people’s republic’ and are not getting wounded, it means that your life is worthless.
War takes away from people not only their homes, familiar life, and sense of security. It gradually strips people of their humanity. And it is especially frightening in how easily and without regret people abandon those who are completely dependent on them. Four-legged friends, who were part of the family just yesterday, today become hostages of someone else's cruel game.
I look at the hungry dogs in expensive collars, at the frightened cats in the courtyards, and I realize: they did nothing to end up in this hell. They did not choose any side, nor this war. But, like humans, animals have been drawn into it. And while a person can still try to save themselves, leave, or hide, animals have no such opportunity.
This is one of the bitterest aspects of what is happening: war destroys everything indiscriminately — people’s lives, homes, entire cities… Even that quiet and simple attachment which once made people kinder. And whilst gunfire echoes through the city, those abandoned creatures continue to wander through empty courtyards, waiting not for news or change, but simply for a small act of human compassion.
Zoia Zazvonova, aged 70, is a refugee from Ukraine and currently resides in Perth, Australia. She is formally trained as a civil engineer and economist; however, eight years spent under occupation led her to the realm of literary prose. Today, Zoia is working on translating her book into English — a work based on her personal experiences of living under occupation and in a hybrid warfare environment.
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