The 37-year-old Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Zhuhan has no intention of giving up on his veganism while fighting Russian forces. Zhuhan enlisted with the army the day after Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, and he has maintained his plant-based diet.
“At the beginning, it was very complicated,” Zhuhan told news agency AFP. “People told me I would not hold out because a special menu is unavailable.” But Zhuhan found the Every Animal foundation in Kyiv, which has made it their mission to support vegan Ukrainian soldiers.
“I wrote to them, and in April, the first package arrived, like a miracle,” Zhuhan said. “There was pate and vegan sausages, hummus, soya milk… and all this for free.”
“We deliver even under bombs,” Every Animal’s founder Tamara Human said. Her apartment in the residential Rusanivka area has become a logistics centre for the movement. She has long been involved in animal protection and lives with dog Misha and a beige rat rescued from a lab.
Every Animal helps around 200 vegan Ukrainian soldiers. “The packages we send them allow the soldiers to supplement for two or
three weeks what they receive from the army so that they have a balanced diet,” Human said.