Five weeks under Russian shells: how a 77-year-old animal shelter owner survived the occupation with her charges
The 24th of February will forever remain in the memory of the 77-year-old shelter owner Asya Serpinska as one of the most terrifying days in her life.
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Enemy planes flew over her head, shells exploded around her, but she found the courage to remain with the animals.
The owner of the Hostomel dog and cat shelter Asya Serpinska along with her assistants survived five weeks of the Russian occupation. Her most painful memories are those of the deaths of animals from shell fragments, and when the Russians shot dogs to death.
TSN reports how the shelter is recovering after surviving the horrors of the occupation.
The Hostomel shelter is home to as many as seven hundred dogs, and another hundred cats. All of them survived the terror of the Russian occupation.
The 24th of February will forever remain in the memory of the 77-year-old shelter owner Asya Serpinska as one of the most terrifying days in her life. As soon as the woman found out that Russian troops had entered Ukraine, she left her family in Kyiv and used several modes of transport to get to her charges. She says she could not have left behind neither the animals nor her co-workers who remained in Hostomel.
On the next day, the shelter was left without electricity – the Russians had damaged the electrical grid. The water supply also stopped functioning. Difficult times began.
Refrigerators for animal food also didn’t work. The shelter was saved by a portable generator. It was bought by volunteers and Asya’s husband risked his life to bring it to Hostomel.
For five weeks the shelter was caught in the crossfire. The woman collects fragments of the deadly metal to this day.
These metal scraps killed as many as ten dogs. Several of the older animals died from heart attacks. Explosions sent tremors through the earth, both during the day and the night. A shell-hole in the middle of the shelter serves as a reminder of the Russian atrocities.
The animals only recently began to recover from their shock. Although they are still terrified of loud noises. The invaders also entered the territory of the shelter. They didn’t touch the cats, but shot some dogs at point-black range.
The shelter is also home to some cockerels. When the Russians heard their singing, they did not go by idly.
Despite living under perpetual bombardments, Asya Serpinska and her assistants tried to avoid panic. They even saved other people’s animals. Near the shelter there are several other buildings in which animals used to be kept. The animals had been left behind during the war, including a lion. The invaders placed a tripwire mine in front of the enclosure’s entrance. To be let in, the shelter staff negotiated for the mine to be defused, for the price of several packs of cigarettes.
The brave woman does not regret staying behind with the animals, as she had given over 20 years of her life to the shelter. Now, Mrs. Asya wants only one thing: for all the four-legged shelter residents to find loving owners and never know fear again.
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