The Dogs That Survived
Собаки, Що Вижили
June 18,2022
Following the Chornobyl nuclear catastrophe of 26th April 1986, all residents within a 30km Exclusion Zone, with the Chornobyl Nuclear Reactor (ChNPP) at its centre, were forced to evacuate their homes. Not all residents, however, were human. Evacuees were instructed to leave their companion animals behind. Most did so, believing the authorities who said they would return within a few days. Some set out food and water to sustain their companion animals during their absence. Permission to return, however, was revoked. Having consumed what food was left behind, cats and dogs were forced to roam the exclusion zone in search of companionship, food, and water.
Believing these dogs to be contaminated, Soviet soldiers were tasked with killing them en masse (as depicted in the HBO series ‘Chernobyl’) to prevent the spread of radiation beyond the Zone. While they killed hundreds of dogs, the Soviet soldiers were unable to kill them all. The dogs that survived were left to face a harsh new reality. Abandoned and without their human companions, they faced existential threats from predating wolves, a lack of food and water, and the lingering presence of radiation. Nonetheless, many survived and thrived.
Today, the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone is home to around 550 dogs, descendants of those that were abandoned in 1986. They live in small packs at various checkpoints and human settlements around the Zone where they are fed, sheltered, and cared for by the workers who guard against trespassers, monitor radiation, and maintain the dome covering the compromised ChNPP. The Clean Futures Fund, an NGO, runs spay/neuter, vaccination, and feeding campaigns to ensure the health of dogs living in the Zone today, as well as adoption and rehoming programs.
On February 24th 2022, the Russian Federation began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Coming from Belarus and headed towards Kyiv, part of the invading army quickly occupied and took control of the ChNPP and much of the Zone, which lies close to the Ukraine-Belarus border. Five weeks later, on 31st March 2022, the Zone was liberated by Ukrainian forces, but remains heavily mined. During the occupation, workers of the ChNPP were held hostage and only occasionally allowed to rotate shifts. The city of Slavutych, where many of the ChNPP’s workers live and commute from, managed to repel the invaders, but civilians were killed during the defence. Due to the invasion, forest fires were ignited in the Zone, re-releasing radionuclides stored in plants and trees. Occupation of Chornobyl is a form of nuclear terrorism, which the Russian Federation continues to practice at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine, posing great threats not only to the workers and residents of these areas, but also to international security.
During the occupation, images of emaciated dogs were broadcast by workers at the ChNPP who were unable to properly provision them with food and water. The CFF reported that dogs were migrating around the Zone to places where Ukrainian workers could safely care for them. Despite a lack of sustenance, however, this period also saw the birth of several new litters. In June, the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine, the CFF were able to visit the Zone and surrounding communities to assess how they could continue their work. Since the war began, they have been providing financial assistance to humanitarian groups helping affected Chornobyl communities, and have sent dog food to the Zone several times with assistance from Andrew Simon (Андрій Сімон). Thanks to this work, the dogs are now in a much better condition. Much work remains to be done, though, and the CFF expects to conduct a spay/neuter campaign later in the year to ensure the population remains stable.
This photo essay emerges from a film project (Собаки Що Вижили/The Dogs That Survived), which is currently on hold. The film depicts everyday life in the Zone from the perspective of dogs and their human companions. It explores the everyday human-animal relations that emerge after catastrophe, representing the endurance and resilience of human and other-than-human beings in the face of disaster. The photos were taken over several visits to the Zone in 2020/2021. We hope to resume this project in peaceful Ukraine in the nearest future.
Dogs reside in almost all parts of the Zone where humans are present, providing companionship and security in this desolate landscape.
The Pripyat pups. These dogs reside at the Pripyat checkpoint, the entrance to the largest city in the Zone from which 50,000 people were evacuated. Chornobyl tourists will be familiar with these dogs who regularly escort groups of visitors around the abandoned city.
Checkpoint guards are very fond of their companions who accompany them on patrol and alert them to the presence of wild animals and ‘stalkers’ (illegal entrants to the Zone). They use their own money and resources, as well as funds provided by the CFF, to ensure they are well fed and provide them with shelters to stay warm in the harsh Ukrainian winters when wolves are at their hungriest. They tell stories of finding dogs killed by suspected poisoning by stalkers and wolves, and bury the dead dogs behind the checkpoint.
Unfortunately, we are yet to receive updates from our friends who work at the Pripyat checkpoint.
Tarzan is the greatest canine celebrity of the Zone, well-respected among guards and adored by tourists. For several years, Tarzan lived at the Duga radar, a massive Soviet radar used to detect missiles, where he accompanied groups of tourists as they explored the site. Duga was dubbed ‘the Russian woodpecker’ by shortwave radio listeners who thought its random emissions sounded like a bird’s repetitive tapping. While he might disappear into the forest at times, at the end of the excursion he’ll meet you at the checkpoint. The guards have taught Tarzan several commands and his spontaneous performances entertain visitors to one of the Zone’s main attractions. He will gladly give you a handshake for a piece of sausage. Before the Russian occupation, Tarzan was transported by guards to the Dytiatky checkpoint, the main control point for those entering the Zone.
Rocky lives at the Benivka checkpoint, a remote checkpoint off the tourist track. Rocky accompanies the guards on long walks during their daily patrols and lives peacefully with the resident cat. He likes to swim in the Pripyat river. When not being walked, Rocky is chained up because he once went missing and was found kilometers away with his paws bloody from having run that far.
In 2014 scientists captured what is believed to be the first photographic evidence of a brown bear within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone using a camera trap. When human pressure and disturbance was removed, many animals returned. The effects of radiation on wildlife in the Zone is hotly contested by scientists, but at least some wildlife seems to thrive in the Zone. While the wild Przewalski’s horses and several other large mammals openly roam the Zone and can be spotted by tourists, bears remain elusive.
Believed to be a dog-wolf hybrid, Balou, the dog lying down, rarely leaves the boundaries of Sergei and Yelena’s backyard. Sergei and Yelena found Balou on the street a few years ago, a little puppy freezing to death. While dogs in the Zone suffer from wolf predation, wolves and dogs can also interbreed, and Sergei and Yelena believe Balou is such a hybrid. It is rumored that several such dog-wolf hybrids roam the Zone. Yelena, an engineer and physicist who worked at the ChNPP during the aftermath of the catastrophe, today provides veterinary care for injured dogs around the Zone. Sergei is a photographer who has taken pictures of the ‘elephant’s foot’, the most radioactive piece of material within the ChNPP. Sergei and Yelena are among a small number of residents, workers, and administrative staff who refused to leave the Exclusion Zone following the disaster. Additionally, around 100 self-settlers remain, those who refused to leave or moved back soon after the catastrophe. We received news that Sergei and Yelena are currently safe in the Zone with most of their dogs, but sadly their oldest dog Mukha did not survive the occupation.
Bilyash is the ghost of Chornobyl. He lives with guards on the border of the 10km Leliv checkpoint - the Zone is divided into a 10km and a 30km Zone with differing levels of security. His pale white silhouette is impossible to miss in the forest. The Ukrainian word Bilyash refers to a fried dough pastry with Tatar origins. Known as peremech in Tartar, the dish is popular in Ukraine.
Like companion animals were left to fend for themselves after the Chornobyl catastrophe, animals around Ukraine face similar hardships today as Russian atrocities and war crimes continue across the country. Amidst this catastrophe, brave civilians are risking their own lives to find and support abandoned animals. The Kyiv Animal Rescue Group is one such example who needs and deserves our support.
Payment for this project will be donated to grassroots organisations across Ukraine providing humanitarian support, including to Eugene, our producer, who now spends his days fundraising, documenting Russia war crimes, and cooking thousands of meals for families sheltering in Odesa, those defending the city from invasion, and those wounded in this atrocious war.
We hope every day for the restoration of peace and sovereignty for the whole of Ukraine. Все буде Україна. Everything will be Ukraine.