Picture of a boy holding his cat in front of his destroyed home in Ukraine

This is a picture of a cat and a boy in front of his completely destroyed home in Ukraine. It’s on Twitter. It is a tweet by the exiled Russian businessman, Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky. I’m told that in 2003 he was assessed to be the wealthiest man in Russia with a fortune of about $15 billion and ranked sixteenth in the Forbes list of billionaires. He is very critical, as he should be, of the Russian leadership led by Vladimir Putin. He makes it clear that as far as he’s concerned “Vladimir Putin launched an aggressive invasion of Ukraine. The whole world looks upon this as a war crime committed by the entire Russian nation”.

Boy returns to his devastated home and finds his cat which he holds up in front of the camera
Boy returns to his devastated home and finds his cat which he holds up in front of the camera. Image: Twitter.
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

War crimes – who pays the bills?

I would completely agree and, as he states, I’m sure that the majority of observers of the war also agree. It has left Ukraine substantially destroyed with many thousands of civilians killed in shelling and bombing and we don’t know how many deliberately murdered by retreating Russian troops in war crimes. Is Russia going to pay to rebuild Ukraine? If not, who is? And compensate thousands of Ukrainians?

Volodymyr Zelensky believes that there has been upwards of 20,000 war crimes in various forms against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. In this devastating but somehow charming photograph of a boy and his cat we see hope. We see something good set against a background of horror.

The photograph

Khodorkovsky’s tweet states:

“Childhood happiness is when you find your beloved cat alive in the ruins of the house you used to live in….”

The boy looks genuinely pleased and relaxed; accepting the destruction of the life he knew. We are told that he had just found his cat in the rubble of his home. He appears that he had just picked him up because the cat is not in a settled position in his arms. However, I don’t know the full history behind this picture. My guess is that the family left their home during the intense shelling and returned later to check out their home which was comprehensively destroyed and found their cat. Many left their pets behind and many evacuated Ukraine with their pets in their arms.

Somebody on Twitter said that the cat is a Siberian purebred cat but we don’t know that. What they are saying is that the cat looks like a Siberian purebred cat but it is more likely that this cat is a random-bred cat albeit a very attractive one. If someone can correct me, please do.

The picture has touched the hearts of many people because it has attracted over 80,000 likes and 9,000 retweets.

Support for Ukraine

I hope that the West in supplying arms to Ukraine to help them in the defence of their country can keep it up. It’s important that the West does not lose momentum in supporting Ukraine. The EU has not done enough although by their standards they’ve done well in supporting Ukraine. Germany has prevaricated, indicative of a failure in leadership in my view. And the current president of Turkey, Recep Erdogan, seems to be trying to appease Putin in being obstructive in the applications of Finland and Sweden to join NATO. Is something happening behind-the-scenes here in which Erdogan is supporting Putin? It looks that way to me. The reason that he gives for not agreeing to the applications is ridiculous; terrorist cells in Sweden? Sounds made up to me.

Below are some more articles on the Ukraine war in the context of cats.

Unneutered, jowly, ginger tabby-and-white stray domestic cat befriends a Ukrainian soldier and he is happy.

Picture of jowly unneutered ginger tabby-and-white male cat with Ukraine soldier declares “Glory to our Defenders”.

Glory to our Defenders! That's the Twitter X message which accompanies this picture of a jowly, unneutered ginger tabby-and-white cat ...
Three of the four lions being relocated from a zoo in East Ukraine during the war to Yorkshire in England for their safety and health and welfare.

Family of lions traumatized in East Ukraine by the war to be relocated to Britain

NEWS AND OPINION: This will be a very good cat new story for millions of people, and many of us, ...
Cats are bringing Ukraine's victory closer

Cats are bringing Ukraine’s victory closer!

This is another great photograph by one of Ukraine's war photographers whose job is to capture images which support the ...

Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.

Useful tag. Click to see the articles: Cat behavior

2 thoughts on “Picture of a boy holding his cat in front of his destroyed home in Ukraine”

  1. tamara beinlich

    Siberian purebred cat comes in many colors and some look like long hair Siamese. But most look like a small version of the Main Coon and nearly all have the M on their foreheads. But more than likely it’s mix breed but it’s pretty and it survived and the boy is happy.

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