Earlier today, a spokesperson for the United Nations International Organization for Migration said they estimate that more than 3 million people have now fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24. Families fleeing the violence are limited in what they can carry, but many are making the effort to bring their beloved pets with them, uncertain of what lies ahead. Some pets that have been left behind, or are unable to be cared for, are also being rescued by organizations in neighboring countries. Gathered here are images of some of the refugee cats and dogs of Ukraine being cared for as family members, and brought to safety.
Animals Can Be Refugees Too
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Volunteers arrive with more than 50 dogs and cats at the ADA Foundation in Przemyśl, Poland, on March 8, 2022. Pets are among the hundreds of thousands seeking refuge in Poland since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The ADA Foundation was started to provide shelter for abandoned animals. Its priority now is to provide food, medicine, and medical assistance to animals in Ukraine, but mostly to evacuate animals into Poland. The organization has been able to evacuate more than 300 animals that have been brought to Lviv from the eastern part of the country. #
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Dogs are seen in an animal shelter at Orzechowce, close to Przemyśl, Poland, near the Ukrainian border, on March 10, 2022. The shelter welcomed 38 dogs and 32 cats from Ukraine on March 9, 2022, taken from Kyiv by the German organization White Paw in several cars. "Many owners travel with their dogs and cats and they don't have anything for them, they are leaving home so fast. So after work here, I go to the center to bring some food to those animals," the shelter's manager said. White Paw is evacuating not only animals from Ukrainian shelters, but also the organization's Ukrainian volunteers to the west. #
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A bag full of puppies, carried by a Ukrainian family to a railway station after crossing the border at Záhony-Csap, as they fled Ukraine on March 6, 2022, in Budapest, Hungary #
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A Ukrainian civilian takes shelter with a cat in their backpack at the Przemyśl train station, 20 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, in Przemyśl, Poland, on February 28, 2022. #
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Rimma, a 3-year-old girl evacuated from the Mariupol area, holds a cat on a bus before leaving a refugee camp in the settlement of Bezymennoye for the territory of Russia during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 8, 2022. #
Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters -
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