'Not without my Jaguar, Panther' - Doctor refuses to leave Ukraine

New Delhi: Amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine, an Indian doctor living in Severodonetsk city of Ukraine has refused to leave the country without taking his "big cats" - a black panther and a jaguar - along.

The stranded Indian, Dr Girikumar Patil, who is also a YouTuber and an influencer, has been staying in Ukraine since 2007. "I originally belong from Andhra Pradesh and came here in 2007 to pursue MBBS. I finished my course in 2014. Since 2019, I wanted to have big cats like a Bengal tiger," Patil, who is also known as Jaguar Kumar, told ANI.

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"I spoke to Kyiv zoo regarding this. This jaguar (pointing towards his pet) is actually a crossbreed between a leopard and a black jaguar and is very rare," he said, adding that the jaguar is 20 months old while the black panther is six months old.

Patil refuses to leave Ukraine without his "big cats". "For me, these are not my pets. I don't treat them like pets but treat them like my kids," he stated.

On being asked if he has spoken to authorities about taking his pets along, Patil said, "I'm calling the embassy but I didn't get a proper response. My place is completely surrounded by Russians. But I'm trying my level best."

As per a media report in the Live Mint, the doctor who has lived for over six years in the small town of Severodonetsk, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, has been stepping out of his basement only to buy food for his cats, after the curfew ends in the early morning. The doctor said that he had bought 23kg of sheep, turkey and chicken meat from neighbouring villages at prices four times higher than normal, adding, "my big cats have been spending nights in the basement with me. There has been a lot of bombing happening around us. The cats are scared. They are eating less. I can't leave them."

Patil's resolve to not leave behind his pets might be unique in terms of the kind of pets he owns. However, it is not unheard of as earlier, many Indian nationals refused to leave their pets behind while they were being evacuated from the war-torn country.

The doctor hails from Tanuku, in Andhra Pradesh's West Godavari district and went to the eastern European nation in 2007 to study medicine. He reportedly brought the animals from the Kyiv zoo around 20 months ago. The jaguar is a 20-months-old male, whereas the panther is a female which is aged six months.

Since 2014, he has been practising as an orthopaedic and now works in a government hospital in Severodonetsk which was shut after the war began. He said he also does private practice. He attempts to raise additional funds through his YouTube channel where he posts videos of his two big cats for around 85,000 subscribers.

He told BBC, "This is the second war I am living through. But this is scarier." Earlier, he used to live in Luhansk, where Russian-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian troops since 2014 despite a ceasefire agreement. During the fighting period there, his home and an Indian restaurant that he had opened in the area had gotten destroyed.

He added, "Now I am stuck in a war zone. This time I am really worried. My parents have been calling me and asking me to come home, but I can't leave the animals."

In a major relief to these pet-lovers, the Government of India had issued a memorandum facilitating "a one-time relaxation measure" for bringing back pet dogs and cats along with stranded Indians who are being evacuated from war-hit Ukraine. A growing number of stranded Indian students from Ukraine are returning with their furry friends, with some even taking risks and forgoing personal belongings in their efforts to save their pets.

India is carrying out Operation Ganga, which is being conducted from the countries bordering Ukraine which as it has closed its airspace due to the Russian invasion, in order to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine, the majority of whom are students.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent four special envoys to Ukraine's neighbouring countries from where Indians are being evacuated. Four cabinet ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiran Rijiju, General (Retd) VK Singh, and Hardeep Singh Puri have been on the job for the last many days. A former diplomat Hardeep Puri has been stationed in Hungary to coordinate their efforts to evacuate Indian students.

Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, three days after Moscow recognized Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhansk -as independent entities.

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