Lindsey Weedston
Video footage of a small puppy being dug out of the rubble of a bombed-out house in Ukraine is reminding people that there are still some good things in the world, even as the brutal war continues across the country. The official Facebook account for the police department in Donetsk, where fighting has been heavy, posted a video showing rescue workers pulling the pup, which was buried under a significant amount of debris for such a small animal.
“Every life is important,” the post caption reads.
The footage soon reached international news organizations and spread across social media, offering a glimmer of hope in dark times.
The original video first shows the devastated condition of a number of houses in the area as Russia continues to target residential areas in their attacks. A team of rescue workers can then be seem rapidly digging in one particular spot in an utterly destroyed home, reportedly having heard a puppy’s cries. After digging a pretty serious hole, a small and very dusty dog is finally uncovered as a worker gently tugs it out of the debris.
The frightened puppy gasps for air at first, probably after having trouble breathing being so tiny and covered in so much rubble. Miraculously, it doesn’t look like the pup is serious injured, and is able to stand on its own legs immediately after being completely freed. One of the rescue workers scoops it up and the dazed animal gets some good pets.
Even better, the puppy’s owner also survived the attack, reportedly escaping his home just before it was hit. The 77-year-old man lost his home and nearly everything he had, but the workers were able to reunite him with his young dog, who is shaking by the time it’s back in the elderly man’s arms.
“Thanks to the boys for doing everything quickly and promptly here,” says the happy dog parent.
Russian shelling in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine has intensified as Vladimir Putin’s forces have begun to concentrate their attacks on the eastern areas of the country. After weeks of failing to take the Ukraine capital of Kyiv, some Russian forces withdrew from areas around the city to focus more on the regions where supposed separatists who want to become a part of Russia are concentrated.
Civilian casualty reports have become horrific as Putin’s war crimes continue, and bright spots in the invasion increasingly difficult to find.