Ukraine: Doctor stranded with a jaguar and a panther

Ukraine: Doctor stranded with a jaguar and a panther. The doctor is holed up in his basement in war-torn Ukraine.

Girikumar Patil lives in Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine. For the last 20 months, he has been looking after a jaguar and a panther that he bought from a zoo. The Indian doctor will not flee from war-torn Ukraine without his animals.

At the moment the only time he dares leave the basement he is sheltering in is when he needs to buy food for his two cats. According to the BBC, food prices for his animals have shot up to 4 times their normal price.

The doctor will not leave his cats. Girikumar revealed: “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.”

He went on to add: “This is the second war I am living through. But this is scarier”.

Previously Girikumar lost his Indian restaurant and his home when he lived in Luhansk. He began practising medicine after moving to Severodonetsk.

Girikumar commented: “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.”

The doctor began studying medicine in 2007 in Ukraine. He has his own YouTube channel which helps raise funds for his two big cats.

The doctor added: “I have always been fascinated with big cats since watching my favourite southern Indian film star, Chiranjeevi, in a film with leopards.”

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