Cat rescued alive after five days beneath rubble of Russian airstrike in Sloviansk
Ukrainian emergency workers have rescued a cat trapped beneath the rubble of an apartment building in Sloviansk, eastern Ukraine, five days after a Russian airstrike partially destroyed the building.
The State Emergency Service released footage on October 22 showing rescuers carefully freeing the cat from beneath broken concrete. The animal was subsequently reunited with its owners.
Russian forces struck Sloviansk with aerial bombs overnight on October 17, damaging nine apartment buildings, two of which were partially destroyed.
Rescue workers discovered the cat during a five-day search-and-rescue operation at the site of a collapsed five-story building.
"Five days of searching, tons of debris cleared, and the pain of every life lost," the State Emergency Service wrote.
"Amid the shattered concrete and rubble, a cat was waiting for rescuers."
The agency said the rescue offered a moment of hope amid the devastation.
"Every life matters," it said.
The rescued cat has been returned to its owners, the agency confirmed.
According to Ukrainian prosecutors, the October 17 attack killed at least one person and injured 10 others.
Among those killed was 41-year-old emergency worker Anatolii Hopka, who had served with Ukraine's State Emergency Service for 16 years.
