Jack Russell digs in on Ukraine minefields
A JACK Russell terrier has been hard at work sniffing out Russian explosives left behind by the retreating invaders in Ukraine.
Patron – or Bullet in English – is a two-and-a-half-year-old dog working in the Chernihiv region, north of Kyiv, to remove the threat of unexploded ordnance.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry has said hundreds of devices had been left behind by Russian forces as they withdrew in the north.
Now dogs like Patron, which has been working since it was six months old, are clearing them out. Patron has been filmed in a dog-sized Ukrainian military vest sniffing out the devices among the rubble with an officer from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, with a reward as a bit of its favourite food – reported to be cheese – along with some tummy rubs.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has said the country is “one of the most contaminated by mines in the world” and accused Russia of trying “to kill or maim as many of our people as possible”.
Ukrainians say departing forces have booby-trapped homes and residential areas, meaning they must be cleared before any resemblance of normal life can resume. “While retreating, Russia’s military personnel are setting up booby-traps, banned by international law, even in food facilities, private housing and human corpses,” the Ukrainian ministry of foreign affairs said.