Horses of Ukrainian State-Owned Companies Like Refugees, Moving to Different Shelters

Illustration of a horse farm. (Barbara Olsen-Pexels)

JAKARTA - The danger lurking in the horse farms in the southern Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine is getting closer in the wake of Russia's military escalation, which has advanced after bombing the region for months.

The Ukrainian government's horse farm currently houses 130 horses, some of which have been moved to evacuate from Zaporizhzhia or Dnipropetrovsk.

"Right now we are moving the horses on this farm to other horse farms in Ukraine," the director of the state-owned company called "Ukrainian Horse Farm", Vitaliy Brovko, told AFP, Friday, December 19.

At the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, the stables at the farm were hit by a missile, leaving one horse injured and another traumatised.

"They didn't go into the barn for two weeks, and day and night, they ran to the barn, turned around and ran back," added the director of the country's state-run Enterprise Branch, Mykhailo Sych.

Since then, threats of destruction and death at the Ukrainian Government's horse farm have continued to loom.

"There are cases where horses have miscarried due to stress," said horse breeder Oleksandr Konyakhin.

"Sekarang tidak ada serangan, hanya ledakan yang terdengar, dan kuda-kuda secara bertahap terbiasa dengan itu," tambahnya.

Animals and the Ukrainian public have suffered during the war, which has lasted nearly four years, with Russian attacks also hitting kennels and zoos.

In October, a Russian drone attack sparked a fire at a farm in northeastern Ukraine. The fire killed about 13,000 pigs.

A month earlier, seven horses were killed in the Kyiv region during a massive Russian attack that hit a horse club.

"Ukrainian animals are once again the target of Russian missiles and drones," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on September 10, condemning the attacks.

"The world cannot stand by while a terrorist state takes the lives of innocent people - human or animal - every day," he said.