A Ukrainian man who embarked on a dangerous journey to escape a country at war into Romania he was rescued from a deep mountain lake in subzero temperatures by an unlikely companion: his months-old kitten named Peach.
More than a dozen rescuers worked in severe blizzards to save Vladislav Duda, 28, who was found “soft and frozen” and severely hypothermic in a 400-metre (437-yard) deep lake in the Maramures region. north last week, according to the area's mountain rescue service. Duda had fled from Ukraine to avoid being drafted into his country's armed forces that were fighting Russia.
“The cat was warm and he was being warmed up… so it saved his life,” Dan Benga, director of the Maramures mountain rescue service, told the Associated Press. “The only thing we saw that took care of him the cat He doesn't care about himself.”
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When the rescue team found the Ukrainian, they removed his jacket and found Peach snuggled inside. Benga remembers asking Duda if he was okay, and he replied: “I'm happy because my cat is alive. I got a chance from God for a new life. The happiest moment is because the cat here with me,” Benga recalled Duda saying.
The auburn kitten, a tomcat called “Peach” in Ukrainian, was suffering from malnutrition after running out of food four days earlier and melted snow helped keep him alive.
“It's like a dream, after everything I've been through, I just hoped to find it and live,” said Duda, who worked as a journalist in Ukraine, to the AP. “Peach kept my heart warm and kept my faith alive.”
A helicopter search was initially launched but was called off due to hazardous weather that restricted visibility. Ground rescuers then began a grueling journey through deep snow and temperatures as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) until they reached the pair.
During the complex climb out of the shore that took more than five hours, the Ukrainian would not let him let go of his kitty. He held Peach to his chest “from bottom to top … “He only said 'Please take care of the cat.'”
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Close to getting frostbite, Duda is now receiving anti-inflammatory medication and blood circulation treatment, said Izabella Kiskasza, who runs a community center for Ukrainian refugees in Maramures and is support both. Peach received veterinary treatment in Baia Mare on Monday and is expected to make a full recovery.
Duda left his home in Ukraine's war-torn Kharkiv region more than a week before he went missing with his partner in the Carpathian mountain range, which straddles northern Romania and southwestern Ukraine. -Ukraine.
While Peach is the first feline to be rescued from a mountainous Romanian region, Duda is just one of many Ukrainian men who have risked their lives crossing the harsh mountain conditions to avoid into their country's war of attrition with Russia.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, more than 160 Ukrainian men have been rescued from the Maramures region of Romania and the numbers have doubled every year since then, Benga said. Another 16 were found dead.
Two other men of Ukrainian draft age were rescued by helicopter the same day as Duda, he said.
“A lot of people are coming, but they don't have a medical problem … and they're not calling for help,” Benga said. “The people who are calling for help are in the last few hours life.”
Ukraine has taken steps to expand the number of draft-eligible men, but the efforts are only scratching the surface against a much larger Russian military. In April, the Ukrainian parliament approved a law that lowered the age of eligibility for the draft for men from 27 to 25.
Desert also starving the Ukrainian army of much-needed manpower at a crucial time in its war with Russia. The US has also urged Ukraine to draft more soldiers, and allow people as young as 18 to be drafted.
“What I remember is the fear of the unknown and the fear of not living through the night,” Duda recalled Monday. “My Peach kept me alive. When we fled we were afraid of everyone, not to be sent back to fight in a war that did not belong to us.”
According to the The United Nationsnearly 4 million people are internally displaced in Ukraine and 6.8 million refugees from Ukraine have been registered worldwide as of November 2024.
According to an animal welfare group Four pawssince the beginning of the war, thousands of pet dogs and cats have been lost or abandoned. In 2022, a German group set up a shelter at the border between Ukraine and Poland to to help rescue stretched pets.
