Yuri first came to Vietnam from Russia when he moved with his daughter to Ho Chi Minh city in 2017. In January 2021, he joined the team caring for the animals at the VAAR shelter. His daughter is still working in Ho Chi Minh as an English and Russian teacher but they call each other every evening after a long day at work, especially when giving our tiny senior dog, Brownie, her medication.
In Russia, Yuri worked as an electrical engineer for over 20 years so he quickly became a hero for fixing all the broken things at the shelter.
Yuri has been a vegetarian for over 30 years. He always advocates for a fully vegan lifestyle by giving our disabled dog, Jackpot, a piece of pumpkin every morning and some grass in the afternoon as you can see in the photo above (in addition to his regular meals of course!).