Dog of captured Azovstal defender dies without reuniting with his owner

Dog Rem didn't live long enough to greet his master, Ukrainian soldier, after Russian captivity, and greet him with his right paw, as he usually did. UAnimals, an animal protection charity, shared the story of the dog who belonged to a soldier imprisoned by the Russian Federation. Rem joined the family and became Serhii's pet when he was still a puppy, only one month old.

Since then, they've spent a lot of time together, often going for a walk in the forest.

The organisation said the dog was able to predict its owner's return home. Rem understood the "hello" command and always provided the correct paw for a handshake, the right one. That is what Serhii taught him. "And Rem also loved to kiss all of us," the fighter's mother Halyna recalled about the dog.

The start of the full-scale invasion of Russia made the pet extremely concerned. Rem then noticed the flames of explosions and heavy black smoke after the blows. Serhii was in Poland at the time, but he returned to Kyiv when the opportunity arose.

After a few weeks in the city, the man travelled to his brothers-in-arms in the surrounded Mariupol. On 20 May 2022, Azovstal's defenders obeyed the order and left the plant's grounds, only to be captured by the Russians. At this point, the dog's health began to decline, and it lost its coat.

The dog didn't live long enough to see Serhii return from captivity. "Rem has died and is no longer waiting for Serhii at home," the organisation stated. We previously wrote about Kotusko, the cat who became a combat companion of the National Guard's military unit 3055.

The animal now lives with a soldier with the nom de guerre Sova and his family.

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