The image of a dog being carried to the Polish border from Ukraine on a man's shoulders went viral when it was shared online - and now the real story behind it has been revealed.
Capturing the hearts of many, the photo shows a man carrying six stone's worth of Pulya, the family's dog, down a frosty road.
The photo taken by Alisa Teptiuk, 35, travelled the internet leaving behind many questions and concerns.
Belfast Live has exclusively shared the real story behind that incredible image, taken on a mobile phone by an exhausted wife and mum as her family fled Ukraine for their lives.
We tracked down Alisa to her temporary home in Poland where she explained how the snap of her beloved dog riding on her husband's shoulder became world famous in an instant.
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Until last month Alisa and husband Dmytro had lived in Kyiv with their two daughters and their German Shepherd.
Life was settled and happy, the children were at school, the dog spent her days between walks and snoozes and the family’s grandparents doted on everyone.
Now Alisa, her children and their dog are in exile in Warsaw where they are safe and close to her mother and sister. But Alisa’s beloved father is dead, still in a morgue in Kyiv awaiting burial, and her husband is back in Ukraine trying to take care of his parents and defend their home.
With the Russian bombardment now hitting their hometown hard, Alisa is living in abject fear while trying to keep her feelings under wraps in front of her daughters - but she has one steady comfort, her dog Pulya.
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Alisa told DogsLive : “She is a comfort to all of us. She’s old but always the same, loving and gentle. We couldn’t leave her behind. Pulya is family. She is a German Shepherd aged 12 and a half, she is old and grey after a lifetime with us. We bought her on the first day of my maternity leave when she was almost four months old.
“That day I began to train with her. She has been through the happiest and saddest moments of life with us. She understands us and loves us and we love her very much and will do everything to look after her and keep her safe. No one could convince us that Pulya could be left behind. It was not possible, we didn’t even think about it.
"Today she is alive and doing well, she stands as a symbol of love, devotion, determination, she represents our family, the lives we had, the lives we've left behind. Pulya is our one constant in all of this madness.”
Pulya, whose name translates from Ukrainian to English as Bullet, travelled with her family of nine plus Alisa’s mother’s dog Kolt, aged four, in a small car for 90 miles heading to the safety of Poland.
Alisa said: “It was my idea to go to the border but it was very painful to leave our home. My father died unexpectedly on February 23. He was just 59 and Dmytro and I tried everything to have him buried, but he’s still in the morgue because war broke out on February 24, the day after he died.
“People were leaving Kyiv while my husband Dmytro and I were trying to sort out funeral documents at places all over the city in order to bury Dad.
“We went from morgue to funeral agency to prosecutor’s office to registry office to morgue to funeral agency. The sirens were sounding all over the place and tanks were driving around the city.
"We had collected almost all the documents, booked a restaurant for a commemoration service and then discovered the registry office had been evacuated which left us without the one final document we needed.
“In the end the crematorium refused to accept anyone. So my poor dad is still in the morgue. I hope that when I come back he’ll still be there. I will give him the best funeral I can.
“It was heartbreaking but we had to go. We packed five adults, four children and our two dogs into a Peugeot 307 car and we drove out of Kyiv. We filled every bit of space, my mother, myself and my sister, our two husbands, the four children and two big dogs Pulya and Kolt. We drove for 16 hours to a village about 90 miles from Kyiv and then we stopped.”
As the family drove on towards Poland the traffic grew heavier, and then they hit gridlock and faced the possibility of a three to five day journey inching to the border. Alisa said they felt like sitting ducks.
Alisa explained: “We decided to leave the village later shortly after we arrived because it was just too dangerous to sit still, even there. As we got closer to the border there were a lot of cars queuing and we were told it would take the next three, or may five days to get to the border by car. We didn't want to sit in a queue without shelter, open to the air, open to attack.
“So we decided to walk the last 10 miles. We left at 4am. It was minus seven degrees. It was a hard trip around mountains and rivers. Our kids were crying because it was so cold.
"I wanted to cry too, I could feel the tears travelling to my eyes but I couldn’t allow myself to cry, I couldn’t give up. It had been my idea to go to the border, we were almost there and we just had to keep going.”
It was during that last stretch walking on the road that Alisa took the now famous photo of Pulya.
She said: “Pulya was fantastic. She walked a lot of the way but she’s old and she needed to stop to rest and then she struggled to get back on her feet and she was getting slower and more tired.
“I stopped cars to beg for help but everyone refused. They told us to leave the dogs, to save our family. They didn’t understand, our dogs are our family too, Pulya comes too.
“Pulya is no less family than anyone else. She has been through everything with us, good times, happy days, hard times, sadness and now war and exile. And Kolt is the same. He’s my mum’s dog and all she has left of her former life, he is her comfort.
“So we walked on and when Pulya got tired Dmytro lifted her onto his shoulder and he carried her. I took a photo without thinking about it too much. I suppose I just wanted to capture the moment. But now I know how special it is. It shows the world our love and devotion. We're just an ordinary family who love each other.
"Pulya was 37 kg when we started the walk. She's 35 kilos now. When she could walk no more Dmytro lifted her. She was so calm. I think she understood we needed to keep moving and she needed to let us help her.
"She's a beautiful dog. She reacted calmly to being lifted, she didn’t struggle. You have to remember she knows we’re her family too and she completely trusts us.
“We made it to the border, all 11 of the family including the dogs and we rested for a few hours. We could see rows of red tents and a big crowd. A woman asked me to take her 11-year-old daughter - someone was waiting for her in Poland. I agreed of course.
“The decision to leave our home and the journey to Poland was hard physically and psychologically and we could see a lot of people around us needing help and medicine.
“We rested in a tent for about seven hours together, the dogs and the five children. We were exhausted, sad and our feet were wet but we’d made it. We were safe."
Before the war Alisa, 35, worked as a computer specialist for a German company helping develop Python, one of the world's most popular programming languages that has been used to create everything from Netflix ’s recommendation algorithm to the software that controls self-driving cars. Her husband Dmytro, 36, worked as a fibre optic network installation engineer and was just about to start new high level qualifications.
Today work is just a memory for the couple and they don't know what the future holds living more than 500 miles apart despite the success of their journey together to exile.
Stepping onto Polish soil heralded a bittersweet victory because just hours later Dmytro and his brother-in-law had to turn around and make their way back to Ukraine.
Alisa said: “We took our first steps into Poland and showed our passes and that was when I realised that we'd be OK, that we were in a safe place. For a moment everything felt fine.
“Our dogs passed their health checks and were allowed to come in with us but my husband and brother-in-law couldn’t cross the border because of their age and the mobilisation order. They had to go back home.
“Right now I’m in limbo. I want my husband here with us but for now I must find a safe place to stay with my children. We've not decided whether to stay here in Poland or go to Germany like many of my work colleagues.
“It was so hard to leave my home, to leave Ukraine. First I lost my dad, and now I’ve left my husband there. Dmytro is such a big part of me, my best friend, companion, adviser. Our deep love is what gives me strength now.
“Everything had to be left in Kyiv, our home, our gadgets, everything, but these are just things. The only important things I left behind in Ukraine are my dad’s body and my husband and I am very worried about him, constantly thinking about him.
