As of Friday, the Aliyah and Integration Ministry's offices in Terminal 1 at Ben-Gurion International Airport have welcomed some 7,500 Ukrainian refugees, some of whom managed to reach Israel with their beloved pets.
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The owners, fleeing from Kyiv, Odessa, Mariupol, and other cities under attack, decided not to leave their animals behind when the crossed the border to Poland or Moldova prior to leaving for Israel.
According to data from the Aliyah and Integration Ministry, a total of 40 animals have arrived in Israel from Ukraine, including dogs, cats, and hamsters. The new arrivals were greeted with dog and cat food at the airport and registered with the Agriculture Ministry in accordance with Israeli law.
Daria Polishuk, a mother of two, arrived in Israel on Thursday with her 12-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son, the family dog, and the children's two hamsters. She was forced to leave her husband, who was drafted into the Ukrainian military, behind.
On the verge of tears, she says, "My children have lost everything – their friends, their school, their activities. Everything. All they have left is me, the dog, and the hamsters."
"We lived in Kyiv until the war. When it broke out, we packed quickly and set out on a 15-hour journey, stopped only three times for 10 minutes at a time. It was hard, especially with the dog, who couldn't sit still all the time. He's like my third child," Polishuk says.
After finishing the administrative business at the airport, the Polishuk family planned to head for Haifa and move in with Daria's mother-in-law. Polishuk says her family had considered making aliyah, but not for a few years.
Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata said, "The Polishuk family's story is the story of many families who make aliyah with nothing, but did not giv up their pets when the fled, and it's heartwarming.
"The Aliyah and Integration Ministry waits for animals at the airport with food and the rest of the things we need, and we see that the new olim who go through the adjustment period with their pets have their spirits lifted," Tamano-Shata said, adding that the new four-legged residents were welcome.
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