The soldier is sitting in the makeup room, in front of the mirror dotted with light bulbs. An assistant warns: “If an aerial siren sounds but there is no missile, we film the show. Otherwise, we’ll go to the bomb shelter. »
Alexandr Liashuk nods politely as a makeup artist powders his nose. Within hours, this 27-year-old Ukrainian soldier, a member of the 122my territorial defense brigade, will participate on the set of the Ukrainian version of the program “Who wants to be a millionaire?” », filming in Kyiv this September.
In case of victory, he promised to return half of the profits to his family and the other half to his brigade, to repair and purchase military equipment. The young man did not come alone. His cat, Shaïba, is patient in the neighboring shelter, dressed in miniature camouflage clothing, impassive and with a Ukrainian shield around her neck. “I consider him my teammate, explains Alexandr Liashuk. So why shouldn’t he have a uniform too? » There is no irony in his words, the soldier is perfectly sincere, as is the affection he feels for his four-legged animal, pampered like a child.
“Take him in my arms.”
Shaïba was still a kitten when Alexandr Liashuk discovered him, in October 2022, abandoned in a box, near his military position, in the Odessa region. “We couldn’t leave it, winter was coming.” says the soldier, in uniform, the word freedom tattooed on the back of the neck. Since then, he has never been separated from his feline, except when his missions, in Donetsk or Pokrovsk, in the Donbass, are too dangerous. “When I return to our position, the first thing I do is hug him. Shaïba is so cute that it is enough to cheer me up. “It is a secret weapon that NATO sent us.”he jokes.
The duo became famous in December 2022, when Alexandr Liashuk decided to make a “miniature checkpoint” in the trenches. The video, posted on TikTok, gets more than 2.6 million likes. In the process, several people contact the soldier to offer financial help; Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, online prize pools have been common practice to support the military.
The idea is clear: what if the cat’s popularity could help the brigade buy the weapons and equipment it lacks? The soldier launches a fundraiser in which Shaïba is the star and raises 700 dollars (660 euros). Stamps with his imprint are sold in seventeen countries, from Japan to Chile through the United States.
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