Dog abandoned by Russian troops finds a home with Ukrainian forces

Ukrainian forces have adopted a dog left behind by Russian soldiers after they retreated from one of the villages. The 19 Mykolaivsky regiment adopted Max after one of the locals was feeding the dog. The Belgian shepherd is a service dog and appears to be lost or left behind as Russian forces retreated from a village in the Nikolaev region. The Mykolaiv National Guards shared the story and pictures of the dog on their Facebook page. The dog is believed to have been frightened by the sounds of war and ran away to a nearby village.

"From now on, the Mykolaiv National Guards have a dog with the nickname Max," read the post as translated by Google. "The shepherd belonged to the occupiers of the Rosgvardíí жа, who captured one of the villages of the Nikolaev region. During the liberation of the territory by Ukrainian defenders, all the dogs ran into the village. One of the families took in Max." They noted that he is a Belgian shepherd and is about 3 years old. "So far he understands commands only in the language of the occupiers, but Ukrainian language classes have already begun," they noted. The Ukrainian forces noted that the dog had a camouflage color collar of the Russian army. They traced it back to a firm in Russia that produces K9 collars for units of special dogs. The veracity of the Ukrainian forces' account couldn't be independently verified.

The dog ran away to a nearby village where a local woman fed the dog and provided it shelter alongside her own German shepherd, reported Bored Panda. Valentyna Dowbush, who already had a dog—a German Shepherd named Seema—saw the dog and offered him food. Max then jumped over the fence and stayed. “He ran up to the fence and looked into the yard. I carried a saucepan of food to him and then he jumped over the fence, ran up to me, and went to the kitchen behind me. That’s how he stayed,” said Valentyna.

As news spread of a Russian army dog living with Valentyna, many people started offering money to buy him. Valentyna had offers of more than $500 for Max, but she refused to sell him and decided to hand Max over to the Ukrainian army. She figured Max would come in handy to them. The Ukrainian forces inspected the dog and took him in. His collar suggested his name was "Bucks" but the soldier in charge of the dog, Riddick, named him Max. Riddick said he was worried the dog wouldn't take to him immediately but that wasn't the case. “Our acquaintance was very unusual for me. There was fear, because the dog is not so familiar to me. But Max immediately approached me – we immediately found a common language with him,” said the soldier. Riddick also added that Max was trained to search for weapons, ammunition, detention and combat. The dog only understands commands in Russian but Riddick is working to get him to respond to Ukrainian commands as well.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the global community to impose harsher sanctions on Russia while virtual addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, reported Politico. Zelenskyy called wants a ban on Russian oil. “There should be a Russian oil embargo, all the Russian banks should be blocked,” said Zelenskyy, while also demanding international businesses to completely pull out of Russia. He called out leaders who weren't proactive in their sanctions back in February when Russia invaded Ukraine. “Sanctions should be preventative; not just imposed as a response,” he said. “Support to the country under attack is most valuable the sooner it provides funding. If we had received sanctions, at once, back in February the result would be tens of thousands of lives saved,” he added.

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