Staffordshire charity saving dogs from Ukraine

Elina Olifaruk's family are currently safe in Ukraine but she said it was "very scary as any day anything could change"

A volunteer who rescues dogs from Ukraine and brings them to the UK for adoption said owners are heartbroken at giving up their pets.

Elina Olifaruk, originally from Lviv, Ukraine, manages Paw Help Rescue and Adopt UK in Burton upon Trent.

She said some pets are left as "families are scared they won't be let through the borders with them".

On Sunday, 25 dogs will arrive in the UK and go to foster families while they wait for permanent homes.

"They cry and they're heartbroken, but they leave them and ask us to help," she said.

Mrs Olifaruk, whose family is still in Ukraine, set up the charity in 2020 as a way to support local dog charities back in her home country.

The charity sends supplies for people and dogs in Ukraine and said they were "struggling for space" due to the amount of donations

She said the volume of stray and neglected dogs meant that the shelters and rescues in Ukraine had "minimal chances to get at least half of their dogs adopted locally" and "local rescues receive little or no help and exist just on public donations".

However, with Russia's invasion on Ukraine and almost three million people having fled the country, the war has made rescuing dogs "ten times harder".

The Staffordshire charity has many volunteers in Ukraine looking for abandoned dogs as well as a contract with transporters who travel between the two countries to bring the animals to the UK.

Olga arrived in the UK last week and has now been adopted

Mrs Olifaruk said: "If we know some animals are locked in the house and crying, with no access to food or water, we try to get the police involved."

She said transporters who collected the dogs last week were concerned about working amid the conflict but that they "felt the spirit" at the border of Poland, with people "cheering them on".