On a farm in northern Ukraine, a fearful heifer has limped since a shrapnel broke her hind leg, her martyrdom reminding us of the heavy toll animals pay in war. Aged four months, she survived bombings that almost completely destroyed a farm in the village of Mala Rogan, 25 km south-east of Kharkiv, killing a third of the animals. A “nightmare night” for Lioubov Zlobina, the 62-year-old owner, who says she has been “haunted since by the cries of the cows burned alive” in the shed on March 26, while the Russians were trying to conquer the agglomeration.
According to the Ukrainian government, 15% of cattle have already been lost. For its part, the association of milk producers estimates that the number of cattle in the country will have decreased by 8 to 10% by the end of the year. “In 2021, Ukraine had 3.11 million head and a loss of 300,000 animals is expected,” according to the NGO Open Cages Ukraine, which issued a first report on June 9, after contacting 290 farms.
