Overcoming Putin and cancer, Odesa owner is now top dog at Crufts

Of all the reasons for not getting your paperwork submitted in time, a lack of electricity after a Russian missile strike is more excusable than “the dog ate it”.

Power cuts in Ukraine meant that Alina the schipperke, a small black Belgian canine of the spitz family, was unable to apply to compete at Crufts on Saturday. However, her owner had been able to enter another dog of the same breed. Appropriately, as one of a record pack of overseas entries, 52 of them from Ukraine, his name is Alien.

The owner of Alien Pixel fon Zhenevjeva (silly names are as much a part of Crufts as well-brushed coats) had quite some journey to reach the NEC in Birmingham. Four years ago Evgenyia Samarska, a dog breeder and trainer, fled her home in Odesa, on the Black Sea, after the Russian invasion. She came to London via Moldova with two children, but within a short time was diagnosed in 2023 with stage three breast and ovarian cancer. During her long treatment at the Royal Marsden hospital in London, where she was given a therapy dog to aid her recovery, she dreamed of one day being reunited with her schipperkes, which she had been forced to leave behind, and exhibiting them at the world’s largest dog show.

She attended the 2025 show as a spectator, and the eventual arrival in Britain of Alien and Alina last summer, even though the documentation required to enter Crufts remained in Odesa, brought her happiness and a sense of hope. “There were times when I could not eat or sleep, when I was not myself,” she said. “All the time I was sick I thought of Crufts.” Alien rewarded her by coming third in his breed and winning the puppy category for his breed.

Among almost 19,000 entries being trotted around the rings at the NEC, a record 4,299 came from overseas, 900 more than three years ago. The numbers had increased every year between 2001, when quarantine rules were relaxed, and 2020. There was then a sharp decline as a result of Brexit, with uncertainty over entry requirements, and then Covid but the numbers have revived.

Entries from overseas have done well in recent years, with nine chosen as best in show. The first foreigner to be named top dog was the aptly named Topscore Contradiction, a poodle from Norway, in 2002. Last year’s winner was Miuccia, a whippet from Venice, while the 2023 champion was Orca, a black Lagotto Romagnolo from Croatia.

The 2015 winner was a Scottish terrier, Knopa, also known as McVan’s From Russia with Love, owned by Mariana Khenkina, who lived in Moscow. In 2022 the Kennel Club, which runs Crufts, banned entries from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. The club donated £50,000 that year to help Ukrainian breeders and owners.

Breeds that originated in Russia are a different matter. The runner-up in this year’s Russian black terrier category was a Ukrainian called Tsytrus Fresh, owned by Oksan Barska. Irina Klymenko’s Heart of Ukraine was fourth in the Russian toy category.

The most popular breed at Crufts this year is the labrador retriever. A record 547 of them will compete in the gundog class on Sunday, just ahead of the golden retriever, with 529. While the labrador remains Britain’s favourite dog, it has been a long time since it was rewarded at by the Crufts judges. Cheveralla Ben of Banchory was the most recent to win best in show, back in 1937, after Bramshaw Bob took the title in 1932 and 1933.

The least competitive event was for the Komondor, or Hungarian sheepdog, a n exceptionally shaggy breed that looks like a giant white mop head and featured on the cover of Beck’s 1996 album Odelay. Only three were entered, with Almadi Harsasuti Talpas seeing off such competition as he had to be named best in breed.

Photograph by Royal Kennel Club/BeatMedia