Stepan, a Ukrainian cat with over 1 million followers, is now safe in France after the cat’s fans raised concerns over his safety when his Instagram page went weeks without any posts.
The cat’s handler, took to social media on Friday March 18, to reveal that they had been forced to flee war-torn Kharkiv amid the war. He also revealed that they went through a gruelling journey by train and on foot.
Stepan aged 13, became popular on Instagram thanks to his amusing photos and to his singature grumpy poses.
His owner, a lady called Anna regularly updates his Instagram account (@loveyoustepan) regularly, so when it went silent for almost two weeks, with no posts between March 3 and 16, fans started to worry they may have been hurt or killed by attacks on Kharkiv, where they live.
Kharkiv, which is Ukraine’s second largest city, is around 25 miles away from the Russian border, making it a major target. Though Russian troops have not yet managed to capture it, it has faced relentless bombing since the end of February.
A post featuring images of Stepan looking scared in his travel bag and on a train was accompanied by a long caption detailing the gruelling journey from Ukraine.
