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The Animals of Ukraine: The Silent Victims of Putin’s War
With every military conflict, a lot of suffering is inflicted on innocent beings, both human and nonhuman. We have rightly been focusing on the toll Russia’s full-scale invasion has caused on the Ukrainian people. But we should also focus on nonhuman animals.
Nonhuman animals are arguably the most overlooked victims of military conflicts. They can’t defend their right to life. But they feel as much as most of us and they are conscious in an ethically consequential way. That is why we should focus on them.
It is impossible to know for certain how many citizens have died in Ukraine, thus far. Different intelligence agencies report different casualties. According to some estimates (as of May 8th 2022) at least 3,381 Ukrainians have been killed (of which 235 were children) and some 3,680 have been injured. According to some other estimates, at least 5,000 people have been killed in Mariupol, the besieged city that has seen some of the most horrific bombings in Ukraine.
Bucha and Irpin have been brought to international attention because of evidence of war crimes. Thousands of soldiers are reported to have been killed on both sides. And Ukrainian officials also claim that Russia has forced more than 400,000 Ukrainians into Russian encampment. This is to say nothing about what type of anguish and…
