How Attacks on Ukraine’s Supply Chain is Becoming an Animal-Welfare Crisis

A dog in a Ukraine does not know where the next meal is coming from.

The dog does not know about manufacturers, warehouses, logistics companies or delivery routes. It does not know that the food eventually reaching them may have travelled hundreds or thousands of kilometres.

The dog only knows whether there is food in the bowl, or not.

And that is why Russia's attacks on Ukraine's logistics infrastructure are also attacks on animal welfare.

You don't have to hit a shelter

When a shelter is bombed, the connection is obvious.

But when a warehouse is destroyed, there may be no animals there. No barking. No frightened faces.

There are pallets, boxes and supplies.

Yet somewhere down the chain, a dog is waiting for what was inside.

The explosion may happen in one place. The consequences can travel much further.

This is already happening

This is not hypothetical. There are documented examples of Russian attacks destroying animal food and the infrastructure used to deliver it.

In October 2022, a missile strike destroyed a humanitarian warehouse in Zaporizhzhia containing animal food, transport crates and other supplies.

In February 2025, a Russian attack destroyed a warehouse used by Happy Paw, with its entire stock of animal food lost. Thousands of homeless cats and dogs were left without the food that had been stored for them.

In September 2025, a Russian drone struck the Boryspil warehouse of Ukrainian pet-food producer PRACTIK. Its key logistics centre and inventory were lost within minutes.

And in June 2026, another Russian strike destroyed more than two tonnes of pet food intended for Ukrainian shelters and hundreds of animals in the Sumy region.

These are only the losses that have been publicly documented well enough to quantify.

There is no central record of every pallet of food destroyed, every delivery lost or every shelter forced to find emergency supplies.

The real figure is unknown.

The attack doesn't have to say "dog food"

The latest attacks show how much further this problem can reach.

On 3 September 2026, Russia struck the Biocon logistics complex in the Kyiv region, a huge third-party facility serving multiple companies. Ukrainian officials reported that the complex was effectively destroyed and operations stopped.

Biocon is not a pet-food company.

That is precisely why this matters.

Modern supply chains pass through warehouses, distribution centres, sorting terminals and transport networks. A single strike can disrupt products belonging to many different organisations.

Information from people on the ground has indicated that Royal Canin supplies were among the stock affected at Biocon. The quantity has not yet been publicly established, so we will not speculate about the loss.

But the principle is simple:

You do not have to destroy a dog-food factory to disrupt the supply of dog food.

You can destroy the infrastructure that carries it.

What does two tonnes actually mean?

Two tonnes sounds like a number.

For the people waiting for it, it means something else.

Meals.

Days.

Animals.

When a shipment is destroyed, the food has to be found again, paid for again, transported again and delivered again.

For a shelter operating during a war, that is not simply a financial inconvenience.

The animals still need to eat tomorrow.

And the people caring for them have to somehow make tomorrow happen.

Even dog parents are greatly affected.

Ukraine's animal-rescue network has moved hundreds of tonnes of food throughout the war. Organisations including UAnimals, Kormotech, Happy Paw and international partners have built a system that keeps animals alive across an enormous country under attack.

The warehouses and logistics networks supporting that system are part of animal welfare too.

The dog doesn't know the warehouse was hit

The dog does not know why the food has not arrived.

The dog does not know that a drone destroyed the building where the next shipment was waiting.

The dog does not know that someone now has to find the money to replace it.

The dog simply waits.

That is what makes this so easy to overlook.

The consequences of an attack do not end where the explosion ends.

They continue down the supply chain, eventually reaching the dog parent, the shelter, the volunteer and, finally, the animal.

That is why protecting animals in wartime means more than protecting the places where animals are physically located.

It means protecting the network that keeps them alive.

And that network is under attack too.

This is why the Higgy Dog Fund exists

We cannot stop a missile.

We cannot rebuild every warehouse destroyed by the war.

But we can help with what comes afterwards.

We can help replace lost food. Support emergency distribution. Strengthen the organisations caring for animals. Help make a fragile supply chain a little more resilient.

Because somewhere in Ukraine, there is a dog that doesn't know any of this.

The dog doesn't know the warehouse was hit.

We do.

And if we know, then we have a responsibility to help.

That is why our first mission is Kyiv, Ukraine.

To donate the Higgy Dog Fund and directly support the dogs in Kyiv this winter please contact HDogz here.