BREAKING Russian Army Rescues My Mother In-law In Frontline Combat
I’m Patrick Lancaster, and this time the war came all the way into my own family.For years I’ve shown you frontline combat from Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporоzhzhia, Kherson and beyond – destroyed villages, burned houses, civilians under constant shelling. But now I’m telling the story of my wife’s mother, my mother-in-law, who spent months on the front line, lost two homes to this war – and still refused to leave without the dogs she had rescued.
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This is not just a report. It’s our family trying to save one of our own.
How the War Split Our Family
My wife is from Donetsk. Her whole family is from Donetsk region.
Before 2014, life was “normal” – as normal as it gets in this part of the world. My wife’s mother had a house in the countryside; later she gave that house to her grown children and moved out to a small farm village. Nobody knew then that a front line would tear straight through their lives.
In 2014, the war started and Donetsk region was literally split in two by the front line:
On one side – Ukrainian forces.
On the other – the Donetsk militia and later the Russian forces.
For years there was still some possibility to cross from one side to the other. Until about 2020, the family could sometimes visit. After 2022, when Russia fully entered the conflict and the front lines shifted again, that became almost impossible. The family was divided:
My wife and our kids in Donetsk.
Her mother stuck in a village that would later become one of the hottest points on the front.
They were separated for more than three years.
When the Front Line Stopped Moving
About six to eight months ago, the active front line reached my mother-in-law’s village – and then didn’t move.
In many places, front lines pass quickly: the fighting rolls through, people evacuate, and what’s left is destruction but also some kind of “after”. In her village it was different. The front got there and simply stayed.
For the first couple of months, there was still some communication through neighbors and rare phone calls. Then it just stopped. No calls. No connection. Nothing.
For months, we didn’t know if she was alive or dead.
From different sources and maps, we understood that the line of contact literally cut through the center of her village. We heard that there were many bodies there – some soldiers, some civilians – but no clear information about her. As time passed, I honestly started to fear the worst, even though the family tried to keep hoping.
A Message From the Ruins
About three and a half months ago, a neighbor finally got a message out:
She was alive.
There was still no way to call her directly, but we knew she had survived at least up to that point. Then again – silence. No contact. More weeks of waiting and guessing.
Only around three weeks ago we got word that Russian forces had taken control of the village. That brought hope, but still no direct communication. We tried every contact we had, asking anyone who might know something. The information we received painted a terrifying picture:
The village had been under constant bombardment.
Houses were burned.
Bodies lay unburied for long periods.
She and her husband were reportedly living in a basement with a pack of abandoned dogs.
At this point, I started actively trying to get into the village myself to find her – one way or another.
“Grandma Is Alive”
I was on another frontline assignment when everything suddenly changed.
I called home like I always do to check on my wife and kids. My oldest son answered the phone, excited, and shouted in Russian:
“Grandma is alive! Grandma is coming home!”
That’s how I found out that my mother-in-law had somehow made contact.
But the situation was still incredibly dangerous. According to what we were told, Ukrainian drones were hitting everything they could, cars were burning on the roads, and she was terrified even to try to leave. On the phone she sounded confused, frightened and disoriented – very likely suffering from concussion and severe trauma after months under bombardment and, as we later heard, a beating by Ukrainian soldiers.
She was refusing to leave, talking about her dog, her chickens, her geese – and, above all, about the dogs from the village.
Fifteen Dogs and a Burned-Out House
When her village came under heavy attack, many residents fled. Their animals didn’t.
Those dogs stayed – homeless, ownerless, wandering through a destroyed village. My mother-in-law started feeding them, taking care of them, and eventually ended up with a whole pack that followed her everywhere.
By the time we got full details, she had around 15 dogs under her care.
At some point, according to the family, Ukrainian soldiers came into the village with neighbors as guides. The neighbors allegedly pointed at her and told the soldiers she was Russian, born in Kursk, and pro-Russian. The soldiers then reportedly:
Hit her in the head with a rifle.
Beat her severely.
Prevented her from re-entering her house.
And later, her house was burned down.
She and her husband survived, but everything they owned was destroyed.
Despite all this, when soldiers later tried to evacuate her by vehicle, she refused to get in. Not because she wanted to stay near the front – but because she refused to leave the dogs.
She insisted on walking across open fields under drone threat, with the dogs following her, to the next village.
The First Evacuation Attempt: “If We Keep Going, We’ll Die”
When we got word that she had made it out of the original village and was in another frontline town, we immediately tried to drive to her.
The road was one of the most dangerous in the region, constantly watched and attacked by Ukrainian drones. At one of the checkpoints, the Russian soldiers there were very clear:
Cars were burning one by one on that road.
Drones were hitting almost every vehicle trying to pass.
In our particular car, we would be spotted and destroyed immediately.
They told us: if we keep going, we’ll die.
We were turned back at the second checkpoint. The soldiers said the only option was to arrange for her to be transported from the frontline side to their position, and then we could pick her up there.
It was one of the most helpless feelings I’ve ever had: knowing she was alive, knowing she was only a few kilometers away – but we still couldn’t get to her.
A Mother Walking Through a Drone War – With Her Dogs
As more pieces came together, we understood the full picture:
She had been living for months in a basement with her husband and a pack of dogs.
She had lost her house – again.
She had survived mortar fire, drone attacks, and close-quarters fighting.
She had been beaten because of her Russian origin and pro-Russian views, according to what the family was told.
She refused to abandon the dogs, saying she would not leave “her animals” behind in the war.
So she started walking – across open terrain, under drones, with around fifteen dogs trailing her through a war zone. That’s why she refused to get into the military vehicle at first: she would only move if the dogs could go too.
Eventually, Russian soldiers organized an evacuation that allowed her and at least some of the dogs to be moved step by step away from the front line, with help from locals and volunteers.
“Grandma Is Coming Home”
From there, events moved quickly.
Word came that she had been brought to the commandant’s office in the frontline city of Ukrainsk. The military told our family: she’s here, you need to pick her up or arrange transport further back. At the same time, there were procedures: she had to be checked, questioned, cleared of any suspicion of espionage, like many civilians coming from areas that had recently been under Ukrainian control or active fighting.
While these checks were being done, the entire family gathered in Donetsk:
My wife and our children.
Her brothers and their families.
Two newborn babies – new grandchildren that my mother-in-law had never seen.
Everyone was waiting for one moment: the car arriving with grandma.
When she finally arrived, exhausted, thinner and visibly aged, but alive – there are no words to describe that feeling. She had never met my youngest son. She had never met her son’s wife, yet they already had two children together. The war had stolen all those years of normal family life.
But now, at least, one thing was clear: she survived.
What Comes Next: Helping Her Start Again
My mother-in-law has now lost two homes to this war.
She spent months under constant shelling, drones, hunger and fear. She was beaten, according to the family’s account, and left with nothing but the clothes on her back and a pack of dogs that followed her through hell.
Now we, as a family, are doing everything we can to:
Relocate her and her husband far away from the front line.
Get them a simple house on their own land – nothing fancy, just safe and stable.
Help her get medical checks, treatment for trauma, and some peace after everything she has seen.
On my channel, with your help, we’ve already:
Bought homes for families who lost everything.
Repaired and renovated damaged houses.
Helped a kindergarten.
Delivered thousands of kilograms of humanitarian aid and heating fuel.
Now I’m asking for your help with something very close to home – literally my own family.
Any funds donated under this report will go toward:
Buying or repairing a modest home for my mother-in-law and her husband away from the front.
Helping them start over after losing everything twice.
Making sure this woman, who fed fifteen abandoned dogs in a burning frontline village, can live out her life in peace.
I will keep you updated on every step of this process – from finding the house to moving them in. As always, transparency and accountability are key for me.
How You Can Help
Help buy my mother in-law a new house
War is terrible in every direction – for soldiers, for civilians, for families split by lines on a map. I’ve shown you hundreds of stories from the front. This time, it’s my own family in the middle of it.
Thank you for reading, for caring, and for helping us give my mother-in-law a chance at a new life after surviving what many would not.