Ukrainian cat travels over 2,500 miles through five European countries to return to Peterborough home

A Peterbrough family has rescued their cat from its former war-torn Ukrainian home.

It took the family five attempts to get their six-year-old cat, Murchik, across the Ukrainian border - before the cat made its 2,500-mile journey through five European countries to return to the family’s home in Thorney.

Frank Anderson, 56, and his Ukrainian wife Olha, 48, had previously planned to bring Murchik back to their home in Peterborough from Olha’s former family home in Irpin, Ukraine - after her mum passed away in August 2021.

Mr Anderson said that the family were not allowed to bring Murchik back until at least February 1 this year because of the UK leaving the European Union - then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine officially began on February 24.

‘He’s been shot at, shelled and heard constant sirens’

“As far as my wife Olha is concerned, the cat is part of the family - so saving the cat was the equivalent of saving her mum had she still been alive,” Mr Anderson said.

“We were just on the last legs of finalising the arrangements and then the invasion happened.

“We got the cat back on Tuesday (April 5). Half his journey was in the middle of a warzone - he’s been shot at, shelled, and heard constant sirens.

“For the first week that he was in Irpin, I’m in no doubt that he’s seen and heard things that we would probably all be in a bad place if we experienced.”

Their cat was previously being looked after by the neighbours of Olha’s former family home - who were forced to leave their home one week into the conflict because of constant shelling and could not take Murchik with them.

‘Case of getting him across the border’

“Eventually the shelling and the fighting got too much and the neighbours said: ‘We need to get out of here - but we won't be able to take the cat because there won't be enough room in our car’,” he said.

“We managed to convince her to drop the cat off at a friend's in North Kyiv. He was there for a couple of weeks while we were still trying to make arrangements, but it wasn’t safe for anyone to be travelling across the country.

“We eventually managed to get someone who was heading towards Laviv that was willing to take the cat with them. We got the cat to Laviv - so at least we knew he was safe. It was then a case of getting him across the border.”

Fourt attempts at getting Murchik across Romanian border

The family contacted a man who was fleeing Ukraine and travelling to Austria. It took him five attempts to cross the border - getting to Romania before travelling to Austria.

“Any men of fighting age aren’t allowed to leave the country - they have to stay in the country and fight,” he said.

“He was a student in his twenties and - although there is a dispensation for students if they have got the correct paperwork - we initially tried to get him across the Polish border and the Ukrainians offered him a gun and told him to drop the cat and go.

“It took another four attempts for him to get across the Romanian border so it wasn’t as straightforward as turning up and getting him through.”

‘Most of the time he’s been walking around and being friendly’

Olha flew to Austria at the start of this week before picking up Murchik and travelling by train through Germany and France - where Frank picked them both up in his car.

“Plan B was that we were just going to jump in the car and travel to Laviv and do it ourselves - which was going to take three days,” he said. “We weren’t going to jump over Plan A until we had exhausted all of our options. But if there was no other way of getting the cat back we would’ve had to do it.

“The week before the invasion my wife was planning to do exactly that. I was almost at the point of hiding the passport. I couldn’t bear the thought of her being stuck there and us being here.”

Murchik has returned home and is recovering well.

“He’s lost a lot of weight,” he said. “Sometimes he hides under the bed upstairs but most of the time he’s been walking around and being friendly.

“We’ve got him booked into the vet for a physical inspection tonight. He can’t talk to us so we can’t see how he is mentally.”