- Patron the Jack Russell Terrier has become the face of The State Emergency Service of Ukraine's rescue team.
- The 2-year-old bomb-sniffing dog has neutralized 90 bombs since the start of the war in Ukraine.
- Patron has since become a social media war hero, with 45,000 Instagram followers.
Patron the 2-year-old Jack Russell Terrier has played a big part in the war in Ukraine by helping to detect more than 90 Russian bombs.
Patron — whose name means "Ammo" in Ukrainian — is a member of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. He's currently based in the northern Ukraine city of Chernihiv, where he has become the mascot of Chernihiv pyrotechnicians.
On March 20, the Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine posted a tweet applauding Patron's work: "A dog called Patron, who works with SES rescuers in Chernihiv, has helped defuse nearly 90 explosive devices since the beginning of the full-scale invasion."
"Patron's story will be turned into a film, but for now, he is faithfully performing his professional duties," the post continued.
Patron is often seen wearing a military protective vest as he rummages through dirt and rubble for unexploded bombs.
The Jack Russell Terrier joins the pyrotechnicians team on their rescue and education outreaches. Part of what the team does is warn survivors about the dangers of the war debris surrounding their neighborhoods, as shared by The State Emergency Service of Ukraine on Facebook.
Thanks to their hunting instincts, Jack Russell Terriers are often chosen to be sniffer dogs. Their small size is an added advantage, as they can squeeze into tight spaces.
The dog's work has not gone unnoticed. Patron's Instagram profile has racked up 55,900 followers despite only having 92 posts. One photo, captioned, "Patron is a hero and deserves a medal," shows the dog standing on a large pile of what appears to be bombs.
Fans across the globe are showing their support for Patron by posting illustrations of the dog online. One woman, who goes by the name Evelina Buyankova, even got a drawing of Patron tattooed on her arm.
Patron is not the only animal playing a role in the war: There's an entire Twitter account currently dedicated to the cats and dogs involved in the Ukraine war.
—MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) April 17, 2022
It has been two months since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Nearly 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced by the war so far, reported United Nations' agencies.
"The humanitarian situation in cities such as Mariupol and Sumy is extremely dire, with residents facing critical and potentially fatal shortages of food, water and medicines," the United Nation's Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said at a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on March 18.
Many Ukrainians are finding refuge in Poland and Hungary, and are bringing their pets along, Insider's John Haltiwanger and Haven Orecchio-Egresitz reported in March. At the border crossing into Poland, volunteers have been offering free veterinary care. And in Hungary, humanitarian groups are requesting donations of dog and cat crates on social media.
The State of Emergency Service of Ukraine did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.