😼 Stepan
Domestic cat (tabby shorthair) · Kharkiv, Ukraine (evacuated to France in 2022, later Germany)
Lives in City Block
Stepan is a grey-brown tabby from a high-rise in the Saltivka district of Kharkiv, rescued off the street as a kitten by his owner Anna. Videos of him sitting motionless at a table beside a glass of wine went viral from July 2021, and Britney Spears resharing him on 24 November 2021 pushed him past a million followers. When Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022 he and Anna sheltered in a basement for two nights, travelled 20 hours by train to Lviv and crossed into Poland; the fundraiser that followed raised over $10,000 for five Ukrainian animal charities.
What they do
Sits bolt upright at a table beside a glass, slowly blinks his heavy half-closed eyes, then lets his head sink an inch lower without ever changing expression..
Horizontal by default. Will tolerate your party as long as nobody expects him to stand up.
Lore
- ★His owner Anna began posting him on TikTok in July 2021; one clip with wine, cake and disco lighting passed 27 million views within days.
- ★Britney Spears reposted him on 24 November 2021 and he gained 15,000 followers in a single day.
- ★In November 2021 he posed with a $2,800 Valentino bag from The Party Collection.
- ★After escaping Kharkiv his fundraiser raised over $10,000 for five Ukrainian animal charities: Happy Paw, UAnimals, Mykolaiv Zoo, XII Months and Plyushka.
Helping the real one
💛 Support Stepan via UAnimalsUAnimals is a Ukrainian animal rights organisation and one of the five charities Stepan's 2022 fundraiser gave money to, alongside Happy Paw, Mykolaiv Zoo, XII Months and Plyushka. Their support page takes one-off and monthly donations by PayPal, Monobank and bank transfer, and funds animal evacuation from combat zones, veterinary treatment and shelter repairs. This is UAnimals' own donate page, not a fund controlled by Stepan. This opens their own official page. Money never touches this site.
Where this comes from
- The Kyiv Independent Chill Ukrainian cat Stepan goes viral, does ad for Valentino ↗
- RTÉ Social media star Stepan the cat escapes Ukraine ↗
- Wikipedia Stepan (cat) ↗
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