Stepan in a remarkable cat in many ways. He appears to be a very passive, well-behaved tabby cat. He is completely normal and standard looking in terms of his appearance but his background, his history and his past lifestyle is far from normal. He comes from Kharkiv, Ukraine and that city was heavily shelled and bombed by the Russians and it is still exposed to shelling and bombing by the Russians. Nowhere is safe in Ukraine despite the fact that most of the fighting takes place in the east and southeast, around the Black Sea. That’s why, I believe, his owner moved to France where as far as I am aware he is still resident waiting to return to his beloved Ukraine.

Stepan was invited to an awards ceremony in Cannes! Image: Stepan’s Instagram account.

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He has a very active and successful Instagram account with many pages. On those pages there is the image that you see on this page above announcing early on last year that he had been nominated for World Influencers and Bloggers Awards 2022. The award took place on May 18 in Cannes, France.

Stepan surrounded by his decorative pillows on sale at his online shop. The translation from the Ukrainian for the pillows is: Decorative pillow, height 45 cm. Cover material: PL80% PA20%. Filling: holofiber. Made in Ukraine. This is a screenshot from a video on Instagram.

I believe that he was nominated for the award because he has been commenting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and fundraising to help the animals of Ukraine.

The BBC reports that in 2022 he helped to raise €15,000 (£12,900). The donations were spent on food, medicine and other care for animals.

And after the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine was blown up by the Russians, Stepan helped collect funds for the evacuation of animals from flooded areas.

And he has also been involved in fundraising to repair a library damaged by the Russian shelling of Kharkiv.

He has also been involved in supporting people particularly children to help them forget the horrors of the Russian invasion.

And finally, Stepan comments on the war. For example, in one post he says:

Oh, how I want my country to win as soon as possible! So that there is peace for which people on the front line have sacrificed their lives. So that there are no more missiles, so that people and animals stop dying.
Stepan

Essentially, he is a blogger and an influencer and he happens to be a tabby cat! There are other celebrity animals in Ukraine doing good deeds. Perhaps the best known and most celebrated Ukrainian companion animal at present is the Jack Russell terrier, Patron. He is a mine-sniffing dog and he has met a lot of high-profile politicians including the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Before the invasion, Stepan used to talk to the public in Russian. He now talks in Ukrainian. He has a shop which sells Stepan items such as pillows and so on. You can see it on the “love you Stepan: website.”