Animal protection organization UAnimals and interfactional association " The first awarding of its laureates took place on February 2 in Kyiv, UAnimals reports..

Anyone can nominate volunteers, employees of public organizations and shelters, veterinarians and other animal activists on the UAnimals website.

“The First All-Ukrainian Animal Protection Award is our way of thanking hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who continue to save animals under shelling and occupation: dogs and cats, cows and sheep, tigers and lions. This evening we presented twenty statuettes to volunteers and animal rights activists, who were nominated by the Ukrainians and selected by the jury. I think that there should be a thousand times more such awards in Ukraine. For the grandmother who shares food with stray animals in the occupation. For a military man who saves every life nearby, protecting Ukraine. For all those whose names we may not even know, but whose heroism we are inspired every second, ”said Oleksandr Todorchuk, a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, founder of the UAnimals movement, initiator of the creation of the Humanitarian Country MFI and the first All-Ukrainian Animal Protection Award.

Winners of the first All-Ukrainian Animal Protection Award:.

Asya Serpinskaya (town Gostomel, Kyiv region. ) Engaged in animal activism for 23 years. Found families for more than 5,000 animals, and now takes care of more than 500 dogs and cats. Since the beginning of the war, he has been accepting animals from the front-line territories in the Gostomel shelter.

Natalya Popova (with. Chubinskoe, Kyiv region. ) Since 2018, she has been saving wild animals. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, together with volunteers, UAnimals has helped to remove lions, bears, roe deer from zoos and shelters in the war zone. Rescued over 600 animals.

Diana Nasibova (d. Nizhyn, Chernihiv region. 11-year-old girl rescues homeless animals and gives them to families. Collects money for food for animals and their sterilization, as well as for assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. More than UAH 200,000 have been donated to Diana since August 2022.

Tatyana Didenko (g. Chernihiv). During the shelling of the city in February-March 2022, she saved more than 250 animals. The woman fed and treated four-legged animals, put out fires after being hit by shells, and protected the premises from marauders..

Olesya Kulik (g. Zaporozhye). Founded the shelter " More than 400 animals live in the care of Olesya, including dogs, cats, bats, pigeons, chickens, hedgehogs. She also teaches classes on kindness to animals at local schools..

Marina Surkova (g. Kharkiv). Engaged in animal activism for 8 years. Develops animal protection bills and promotes humane treatment of animals in Ukraine. Takes care of 13 cats and a dog at home.

Mikhail Storozhuk (Kyiv - Bakhmut). Since 2014, she has been working as part of the Kyiv Animal Rescue Group. Evacuated from Bakhmut direction about 150 four-legged.

Irina and Oleg Tyutyun (g. Kherson). Spouses take care of homeless animals from the first day of the war. Irina and Oleg helped them during the occupation of Kherson. Now, despite the shelling of the city, they go to feed animals in abandoned shelters.

Anastasia Tikha (g. Irpen, Kyiv region. ) Anastasia and her husband took more than 20 injured and disabled animals from Irpin, in particular cats, dogs, a chameleon, a gopher and a spider. After the de-occupation, the couple returned to the city and opened a shelter in which they sheltered 67 cats and dogs affected by the war..

Eleonora Krutova (d. Avdiivka, Donetsk region. ) Since 2014, she has been taking care of abandoned animals whose owners left the east of Ukraine due to the Russian invasion. In 2016, she founded the Animal Safety organization, which rescues homeless cats and dogs, feeds and sterilizes them, and also evacuates them from the frontline territories.

Andrea Cisternino (Italy - Ukraine, Kiev region). Former Vogue and Formula 1 photographer from Italy. In 2014, with his Ukrainian wife, he opened the Rifugio Italia shelter for pets in the village of Lisovichi, Kyiv region. During the war takes care of goats, pigs, cows, sheep, horses, dogs.

Alexander Siplenko (g. Sumy). Animal rights activist, lawyer, founder of the NGO " Since the beginning of the war, 101 animals have been evacuated abroad. Together with his wife, he opened a center for overexposure of dogs in Sumy, where there are about 250 four-legged dogs.

Sergey Grigoriev (Mezhyhirya, Kyiv region. ) Animal rights activist, biologist. Over the six years of work, he helped about 120 birds. Now he takes care of swans, deer, geese, roe deer, pigeons in the Mezhigorsk shelter, which suffered from Russian shelling at the beginning of the war.

Elena Pylova (g. Zaporozhye). Helping animals for 8 years. Volunteer in the shelter " Rescues animals in the " Brings food for them and evacuates quadrupeds to safe areas.

Petya Petrova (Bulgaria). UAnimals volunteer from Bulgaria. Together with the movement team, evacuates cats and dogs from front-line territories. Helps treat pets and delivers humanitarian aid to hot spots.

Svetlana Ostapkova (g. Mirnograd, Donetsk region. ) Now Svetlana takes care of 180 dogs and 73 cats. Since the beginning of the war, she has been evacuating injured animals from the war zones in Bakhmut, Avdeevka, Slavyansk to her shelter..

Alexandra Levitskaya (Dnepropetrovsk region - Mykolaiv region - Kherson region). Founder of the shelter " Together with the team, more than 600 ungulates are trained: cows, horses, goats, sheep, pigs, ponies, donkeys, rams.

Alexey " Mariupol). Opened a shelter for dogs, foxes, spiders, pythons in Mariupol. After a full-scale Russian invasion, he defended Mariupol on Azovstal. He died in July 2022 as a result of a Russian terrorist attack in the Yelenovskaya colony. Awarded posthumously.

Two more award winners are in the war zone and in the temporarily occupied territories. For security reasons, their names are not disclosed, but they promise to tell about them after the victory..

Jury of the first All-Ukrainian Animal Protection Award:.

Masi Nayem - AFU soldier, human rights activist, public figure.

Oleksandr Todorchuk is a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, founder of the All-Ukrainian humanist movement UAnimals and initiator of the creation of the Humanitarian Country MFI.

Yuliya Ovchinnikova — Co-Chairman of the Humanitarian Country, People's Deputy of Ukraine, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Subcommittee on Forest Resources, Biodiversity, Natural Landscapes, Objects of the Natural Reserve Fund and on the Adaptation of Ukrainian Legislation to the Provisions of European Union Law.

Daniel Cox - Head of Compining at PETA Germany.

Celine Sisler-Bienvenue is Program Director for International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Disaster Response and Risk Reduction in Europe.

Alina Mykhaylova - military serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, volunteer and social activist, deputy of the Kyiv City Council of the IX convocation. In 2022, she was included in the national list "

UAnimals is an all-Ukrainian humanistic movement that has existed since 2016 and promotes humane treatment of animals, protecting them from exploitation and abuse. For seven years of activity, the movement has achieved the adoption of important animal protection laws in Ukraine, achieved a ban on the exploitation of animals in circuses in about 30 Ukrainian cities. In 2017, the UAnimals team held the first All-Ukrainian March for Animal Rights, which brought together more than 5,000 people and became the largest animal protection event in Eastern Europe. Since February 24, 2022, the movement has focused its efforts on saving animals in war zones and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.