Ukraine-Russia war: Indian doctor refuses to leave Donbas without pet jaguar and panther

As the Russia-Ukraine crisis intensifies, a number of Indians who were stranded in war-torn Ukraine have now been returning home. However, an Indian doctor who hails from Andhra Pradesh has been living in the basement of his home since a week with two pet big cats - a black panther and a jaguar. The doctor, Girikumar Patil, has been living for more than 6 year in Severodonetsk, a town in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. As reported by BBC, Patil brought the pet big cats from the Kyiv zoo about 20 months ago and now refused to leave Ukraine without his pets. The 40-year-old doctor said that both his big cats were scared because of the bombing happening around and had also begun to eat less. Since the war began, Patil has been stepping out only after the curfew ends in the morning, just to buy food for his pets. He has brought around 23 kgs of meat at four times higher the normal price. The doctor went to Ukraine in 2007 to study medicine and has been practicing orthopedic in the country since 2014, along with working in a government hospital at Severodonetsk. He was always fascinated by big cats and also has three Italian dogs as his pets. He tries to raise funds for his pets through his YouTube channel, which has around 85,000 subscribers. The doctor has also played small parts in some Telugu soaps and in Ukrainian films and series.

With bombings and Russian forces increasing in the Donbas region, most Indians have moved to nearby villages. Patil’s parents have also been worried regarding his safety and are asking him to return home. Even though the Indian doctor is a bit scared of the situation, he does not want to leave his pets alone in a war zone. “My parents have been calling me and asking me to come home, but I can’t leave the animals," said Patil, in an interview to BBC. Meanwhile, this is not the first time that the Indian doctor has experienced war in Ukraine. Earlier, the man used to live in Luhansk, where Russia-backed rebels fought Ukrainian troops in 2014. Patil lost his restaurant and home during the fight in that region and this time, he is more worried than before as the situation seems to be grave in war-torn Ukraine. He really hopes that the Indian Government will allow him to take all his pets home and that he does not have to leave any of his pets in a war-hit zone.