The cuddly warriors of Kiev: that’s why Ukraine is now sending cats to the front

Mice! Hundreds, thousands. “They flood our trenches and shelters and destroy everything in their path,” Ivan complains. Emergency rations, shoes, uniforms, cables and sleeping bags: nothing is safe from the nibbling creatures. The small rodents pose a huge additional difficulty in the fight against the Russian attackers.

This is how the cats save the lives of the warriors

To solve the winter mouse plague, the soldiers have now brought some cuddly war comrades into the trenches. Xena and Signature recently joined the 67th Brigade. The soldiers call the two cats “SSO’shnyks” – based on the special forces of the Ukrainian army of the same name. The brigade had found the animals in the ghost villages along the front, abandoned by their owners who had fled.

Mice hunting is the top priority in animal soldier selection. Dozens of invaders would kill them every day, as would their heavily armed new masters. But molting is just one of the many functions the cuddly warriors perform every day.

The cats have a kind of integrated warning system, says soldier Ivan. “It seems to me like they can sense when a rocket or bomb attack is imminent.” The animals often hid in the back of the trenches a few seconds before the explosion. A clear warning sign for Ivan and his comrades: be careful, something is coming! “Our cats have saved our lives several times,” says the Ukrainian fighter.

Cats have been used in human wars throughout history. For example, during the First World War they were sent to test whether dangerous gases were floating above the recaptured battlefields.

The incredible story of Unsinkable Sam

A cat named Unsinkable Sam became famous in military history circles. The black and white animal originally traveled as a mascot on the German warship Bismarck during World War II. The ship sank, the cat was rescued by the crew of the British destroyer Cossack and survived an attack on the British ship shortly afterwards. Unsinkable Sam finally served his third shift on the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, which also sank shortly afterwards. Sam survived and retired to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he died in 1955.

The British kingdom knows the merits of its fur-wearing warriors. Since 1943, the British have been handing out the ‘Dickin Medal’, specially created for animal heroes. “We also serve,” reads the bronze award given to dogs, horses, cats and even carrier pigeons.

The Ukrainian army does not yet have medals of honor or military service crosses for its cats. Xena, Signature and their four-legged colleagues are still heroes to the fighters. “If you can scratch them after a hard fight, it works like an antidepressant,” says Ivan. The cats are a great help in dealing with the extreme stress that all frontline fighters were experiencing. “Their purring reminds us of home, their closeness heals.”

Fortunately, nothing has happened to the cuddly warriors so far, Ivan emphasizes. They survived the first weeks of the Ukrainian Winter War unscathed. “And we will do everything we can to make sure they survive until they win and can celebrate with us.”