Volodymyr Zelenskiy presents award to jack russell Patron, who is seen as a symbol of resistance against Russia
Good Dog! 🦮🥇
This is not just a cutesy feel-good story about dogs. Patron the Dog is saving lives.
A mine-sniffing dog credited with detecting more than 200 explosives since the start of the war in Ukraine has been given a medal for his services to the country.
Patron, a two-and-a-half-year-old jack russell, was presented with the award by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, at a ceremony in Kyiv.
The terrier, whose name means “ammo” in Ukrainian, sniffs out Russian mines and explosives in the north-eastern city of Chernihiv and acts as a mascot of the country’s state emergency service.
Actually, a somewhat more specific translation of Patron (Патрон) might be “cartridge”.
Prime Minister Trudeau happened to be in Kyiv for talks and got to witness the medal ceremony.
Patron’s efforts to save lives will pay off for many years to come. There are still people being killed by unexploded ordnance left over from World War I (1914-1918).
WWI Munitions Still Live Beneath Western Front
About 1.5 billion shells were fired during the war here on the Western Front. Colling and his colleagues bring in between 50,000 and 75,000 tons of them a year. At that rate, they'll have enough work to keep them busy for the next 500 years.
Implicitly, leftovers from Putin’s invasion could be costing people their lives into the 26th century. So Patron and his talented colleagues have plenty of work to do.
Here’s Patron doing his job.
