The family of a fallen soldier from Bukovyna sheltered a dog he found at the front.

The animal was exhausted and frightened - the defender could not leave it in the middle of the forest.

For 4 months, together with the four-legged dog, he defended the country, and the dog also sensed and warned the soldiers about enemy fire.

After the soldier's death, volunteers brought the dog to Chernivtsi.

This is reported in the story of TSN.

7-year-old Tonya plays with her new friend and says that the dog has become a member of their family. 

"When I saw her for the first time, it seemed to me that she had been living with me for a very long time. It was as if she were already my family," says the daughter of the fallen soldier Antonina Marusyk. 

The girl's father picked up a homeless animal on the front line.

I wanted to return home with her and with victory.

Marusya is here.

But Ruslan is gone - he died in early January during enemy artillery fire.

Photo: TSN

Now the soldier's daughter believes that her father is protecting her from heaven.

Although he had no combat experience, Ruslan Marusyk went to the front as a volunteer.

He left his daughter and pregnant wife at home.

"I'm already packed, my backpack is almost ready, I'm not going to run away anywhere. Muscovites came to our yard and want us to meet them, what do you want me to set the table for them?", the son's mother recalls Maria Marusyk. 

The military initially served in the Teroboron, from September - in the Kharkiv Region.

Then little Matviyko was born.

Ruslan managed to see the baby twice: immediately after birth and at the christening.

"We have a Cossack growing up. He dreamed that he would grow up and join the army. So that he could, he says, protect you, then his family," says the wife of the deceased, Khrystyna Marusyk. 

Relatives keep all the messages that Ruslan sent from the front line.

In one, he talked about a new combat partner - she appeared at the position just on the day of his birth.

For 4 months, they performed combat tasks side by side.

He fed and even bathed Marusya.

She followed him everywhere.

And also - she warned about the danger.

When Ruslan died, his brothers asked volunteers to take Marusya from the front.

Because she longed for her master too much.

"When we arrived, Marusa had tears in her eyes, she was constantly searching, I can't put it into words," says volunteer Yaroslava Zelisko. 

At that time, the volunteers did not know: the hero's family was just looking for Marusya to take home.

The animal was brought home to Ruslan - and only then did it calm down.

Marusya now gives all her love and devotion to her master to his family.

We will remind you that during the war with the Russian occupiers, a former member of the Lviv City Council, Vitaliy Svintsitskyi, died. 

Read also:

• Despite billions in damage, the Chernobyl zone is recovering what was lost during the occupation, but people are not recovering

• A party during COVID-19, fights in the Council and the scandalous Velur restaurant: blunders and curious situations with Tyschenko

• "They can strike at the same time and combine all weapons": an analyst on the nearest danger from the sky for Ukraine