Ukrainians rescued a cat of a Mariupol policeman who died fighting for Azovstal
Danyil Safonov, a Ukrainian policeman who laid down his life in fights for Mariupol on May 2, asked to save his cat as the last wish. Yesterday, his pet was successfully taken out of the occupied Ukrainian territory, according to the UkrARMY cats & dogs Twitter account dedicated to the Ukrainian military and their pets.
The post says, “Before his death, the policeman Danyil Safonov who died in Mariupol asked Ukrainians to save his cat. And Ukrainians found and saved his cat! Yesterday, the Ukrainians took Danylo’s cat to the free territory. Rest in peace, my friend – your cat is safe!”. Now it is unclear where exactly the animal was taken.
Incredible story.
— UkrARMY cats & dogs (@UAarmy_animals) July 11, 2022
Before his death, the policeman @daniil_donetsk who died in #Mariupol asked Ukrainians to save his cat.
And Ukrainians found and saved his cat!
Yesterday, the Ukrainians took Danylo's cat to the free territory.
Rest in peace my friend - your cat is safe! pic.twitter.com/FVInFoBuQ7
Danyil Safonov was born in Donetsk in 1993. In 2014, he moved to his grandmother in Mariupol, and later moved to Terebovlya in Ternopil Oblast, where his sister from Donetsk lived. He served under contract in the 44th separate artillery brigade. In 2019, after the contract was terminated, Danyil returned to Mariupol, where he worked as a patrol policeman. With the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine, he became one of the city defenders. In April, Safonov, as well as other military, was deployed to the Azovstal plant, where he died on May 2. Only a month and a half later, his body was evacuated from occupied Mariupol. Danyil was buried in Terebovlya on June 21. He was survived by his wife and son.
Safonov ran his own blog on Twitter, where he talked about what was going on in Mariupol. The last post on his account was dated April 19. “We hadn’t eaten anything for almost two days, it was arduous… While the command was establishing the supply chain, we cooked porridge from the compound feed and pigeon, it turned out to be a hearty meal”, Danyil wrote at the time.
On May 20, a petition was registered on the president’s website asking to posthumously grant Danyil Safonov the “Hero of Ukraine” title. So far, the petition has 18,000 signatures out of the 25,000 required for Volodymyr Zelensky to take it into consideration.
