In Odesa, Ukraine, a cat has captured global attention after learning the route to a bomb shelter by heart due to frequent Russian shelling. The cat's owner, Victoria Ilkiv, shared a video showing her pet sprinting through building corridors toward the shelter during an air-raid alert, occasionally glancing back to ensure she was following. The clip, which was originally posted on TikTok, later quickly went viral, spreading across multiple social media platforms.
Speaking to Ukrainian socio-political online media outlet, Ukrainska Pravda. Life:Victoria explained that she and her husband adopted the now five-year-old cat from a shelter. Over time, the feline memorised the safest path and now instinctively guides its owners to safety whenever the sirens sound.
Watch the video here:
💔 Odesa cat learned to go to shelter on its own during emergencies - this is life in Ukraine today #Freedom pic.twitter.com/fOQB7P6oYB
— Denys (@DenysBaumman) July 21, 2025
"My husband had long dreamed of a ginger cat, and then we came across a post from one of the shelters that they were looking for a family for a kitty. Her owner had died of an illness," she said.
"We immediately fell in love with her and went to pick her up the next day. The shelter turned out to be a four-room apartment, where 25 cats lived. We were offered to choose anyone we liked, but our kitty came up to us and sat in our arms. We realised that she was ours, and without hesitation we took her home," says 32-year-old Viktoriya Ilkiv.
According to her, when the cat was taken from the shelter, she was very nervous, but over time she began to trust her new owners. The ginger cat has been living with them for over three years.
Victoria and her husband care about the cat's safety, so they always take her with them to the shelter. If no one is home, she hides under the bed.
"We saw how smart and sensitive she is. She goes to the shelter with us, and we didn't specifically train her to do this - we just took her to the bomb shelter in the parking lot a few times. When she hears the alarm, she just looks at us and waits for our reaction. She's not afraid of explosions," says the owner of her four-legged pet.
