Since the beginning of the conflict, a small Ukrainian Jack Russel Terrier has been honored on social networks for his work in detecting Russian explosives.
With a Wikipedia page to his name and an Instagram account with more than 53,000 followers, Patron, or “Cartouche” in French, has become a real star in Ukraine. This Jack Russel Terrier, specialized in detecting explosives since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, has distinguished himself several times since February 24 and the launch of the Russian invasion.
“Originally, the dog was trained to hunt,” said his boss, Mikhail, head of Chernihiv’s demining squad, at the BFMTV microphone. “He’s our family dog, not a service dog. But he has an extremely keen sense of smell, so before the war I occasionally took him out into the field.”
“It has become our mascot!”
Two months ago, Patron, Mikhail’s son’s dog, was not trained at all in mine clearance, but like all Ukrainians, his life changed when Vladimir Putin declared war on Kiev.
“I started training him to hone his ability to sense explosives. He became our mascot,” said Mikhail.
Since then, Mikhail and Patron have traveled hundreds of miles on the roads and in the woods seven days a week. One smells mines and the other defuses them. “He smells like powder like no other! So when he finds it, he barks to let us know, and then we take over,” his master continues.
Mine clearance, a real problem in Ukraine
The size of Patron is ideal: at the age of two he weighs about four kilos. So anti-tank mines don’t explode under their weight, and neither do anti-personnel mines. These machines are only activated when they receive a weight of five kilos… That’s slightly more than Patron.
“The small size and weight is a good asset”, Mikhail sums up.
Boss will therefore have to watch his line. The fact remains that demining is a real problem in Ukraine. The public service manager believes: in 300,000 square kilometers the area to be cleared in the country, i.e. about half of the territory†
However, Ukraine currently has only 550 specialized officers for such work. Before the war, demining was a niche profession. Whatever the outcome of the conflict, it will have to be democratized.
