As Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a serious battle, many stranded Indians are being rescued by the government. The students who are returning have no heart to abandon their pets amid the war-stricken countries. They are bringing their dogs and cats home with the help of the government.

Now, a stranded Indian doctor, holed up in a basement, is refusing to leave Ukraine as he can't just leave his pets - a panther and a leopard in the war-hit nation. Dr Girikumar Patil is living in a bunker below his home in Severodonetsk, in the Donbas region. He hails from Tanuku, in Andhra Pradesh's West Godavari district and went to the eastern European nation in 2007 to study medicine.

It is being reported that he bought the animals from the Kyiv Zoo about 20 months ago and has a YouTube channel named ‘Jaguar Kumar Telugu’. Dr Patil told the media, "I will never abandon my pets to save my life. Of course, my family is urging me to return. My pets are my children. I'll stay with them and protect them until my last breath. I called the (Indian) embassy but didn't get a proper response. My place is surrounded by the Russians but I'm trying my best. I treat them (pets) as my kids."

Patil resists evacuating from there though his family members, many of his friends, and relatives have suggested abandoning those big cats and saving his life by fleeing the country. He recently interacted with the Andhra Pradesh state opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu over a zoom call. The medico said that he decided to keep wild animals as pets after watching the Chiranjeevi-starrer Lankeswarudu (1989), where the protagonist has a big cat as his companion.