The Ukrainian women putting their jobs and lives on hold to save fleeing refugees… and 100,000 pets
- Oksana Koshak and Olga Korllovich set up a rescue charity for displaced pets
- Backed by an army of volunteers, it has found shelters for 100,000 animals
- Natalia Rybka-Parkhomenko turned Les Kurbas theatre in Lviv into a shelter
Across Ukraine, inspiring women are putting their normal jobs, and lives, on hold to help the war effort.
Lyana Mytsko, 32, is a shining example. As soon as the invasion started she converted the avant garde arts centre she runs in Lviv, the main hub for those fleeing the fighting in Eastern Ukraine, into a shelter for refugees.
She and ten friends also collect them from the main railway station, a service nobody else was providing.
Oksana Koshak, 39, a senior civil servant, and Olga Korllovich, 35, a medical translator, set up a rescue charity – Tailed Hostages of War – for displaced pets
Every night up to 40 mothers, children and babies bed down in galleries crammed with modern paintings and artworks.
‘We also arranged for two psychologists to help them, talk to them, soothe them if they are feeling stressed and to help them figure out what do next,’ said Lyana.
At the same time, her stable of artists have designed Stand With Ukraine posters that are being sent all over the world. ‘I’m proud that we’ve been able to help,’ she said.
Oksana Koshak, 39, a senior civil servant, and Olga Korllovich, 35, a medical translator, set up a rescue charity – Tailed Hostages of War – for displaced pets.
Backed by an army of volunteers, it has found shelters for 100,000 animals.
Oksana said: ‘We are both pet lovers and as soon as the fighting started we were struck with the same thought, “What about all the pets?” We felt we had to something. But then everyone is doing something.’
Backed by an army of volunteers, it has found shelters for 100,000 animals
One of Lviv’s most famous actresses, Natalia Rybka-Parkhomenko, 33, originally from bomb-hit Kharkiv, turned the Les Kurbas theatre in the city into a shelter.
‘I felt I had to do something. We needed to find space for all these people fleeing from the East,’ she said.
TV newsreader Dariya Hirna epitomises detached professionalism as she tells millions of Ukrainians of the latest horrors.
If there is an air raid warning she disappears for a few minutes before calmly resuming where she left off in a basement bunker.
She said: ‘As I sit reading the bulletins I don’t become emotional because I’m mostly seething with anger. I am furious at what Russia is doing to my country.’
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