“She likes biting,” said Vasyl Velychko, using his remaining hand to fend off an excited German shepherd called Ira at a dog shelter in Lviv, western Ukraine.
Velychko is one of tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have had amputations as a result of injuries suffered during Russia’s war on their country.
Ira is just one of up to 60 dogs that Velychko feeds and walks every day at the Lviv Animal Shelter. The dogs have become his therapy.
“I saw an advertisement. I thought, I’ll come, I’ll try to work,” he told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.
Velychko served in the Ukrainian military from 2017-2020 but rejoined after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. A few months later, during a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, a shot from an anti-tank grenade launcher tore off his arm.
After rehabilitation, Velychko worked briefly as a courier before recently starting a job at the shelter.
“Some people lose spirit, but they need support and someone to set an example,” he said. “And for those who just stay home, I say: Find some work, be around people, communicate.”
Velychko wears a belt connected to the dog leash to free up his arm for other tasks while he’s walking the dogs.
“Since I have an upper-limb amputation, it’s uncomfortable sometimes, like when I need to hold the dog or clean up after it. With the belt, I can just let go, and I know the dog won’t run away, get hit by a car, or escape,” he said.
Kostyantyn Pavlenko, a dog specialist at the shelter, said Velychko’s disability did not hold him back.
“Physically, of course, it is difficult for someone without one arm,” he said.
“But he never asks for help. I even told him once on the training ground, ‘Wait, I’ll catch the dog.’ He said, ‘No, no, I’ll do it myself.’ He positions himself with his legs, clamps with his legs, clips the carabiner, and manages it all on his own.”
Velychko said he never takes a day off — and that he loves dogs more than people.
“I can’t imagine myself without the dogs. How could anyone betray them, abandon them? They trust you, they love you.”
