Hanna the Doberman, the legendary dog who saved more than 170 people, has died
Hanna, a Doberman and renowned rescue dog who participated in hundreds of search operations and helped locate more than 170 people under the most challenging conditions, has passed away.
This was reported by the Pavlohrad Search and Rescue Canine Unit “Antares” on Facebook.
Hanna was specially trained to search for both living people and the bodies of the deceased—in man-made rubble as well as in natural environments. She worked in Ukraine’s most dangerous areas, where rescue operations were underway following Russian shelling.
The dog was deployed on missions in the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Sumy, Kirovohrad, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and Donetsk regions. Together with rescuers from the State Emergency Service, Hanna worked at sites of missile strikes, including in Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Pavlohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kotelva, Novohrodivka, Selidovo, Pokrovsk, Myrnohrad, and Kramatorsk.
Another focus of her work was her participation in the humanitarian project “On the Shield,” through which she helped locate and recover the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers for a dignified burial. Police units in various regions of the country also enlisted Hanna’s help.
Thanks to her unique skills, this four-legged rescuer could find people even several days after they went missing. In one instance, she managed to locate a person on the seventh day of the search.
In addition to search and rescue operations, Hanna also carried out an important therapeutic mission. She provided psychological support to victims and military personnel, including visiting patients in the intensive care unit of the Central Hospital of the Western Region.
A year ago, doctors diagnosed Hannah with a terminal illness and predicted she had only 2–3 months to live. However, the dog lived another year and continued to work until the very end—rescuing people, helping recover the bodies of the deceased, and supporting those who had survived the tragedies of war.
“She wasn’t just a dog—she was a Soul and a Person... A dog who lived her life for people and accomplished far more in it than some people do. Her entire life was a quest. Hanna sacrificed her health and earned that diagnosis while working in areas of heavy fighting and enemy attacks. One of her missions in her final months hastened her death,” the canine unit noted.
Hanna is remembered as a symbol of devotion, courage, and unconditional service to people—even at the cost of her own life.
