Stepan (, ; born November 16, 2008) is a Ukrainian striped

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

who gained worldwide popularity on social media for his calm nature and jaded posture, making him Ukraine's most popular cat. He has more than one and a half million followers on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and

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. Since 2019, Stepan also has an account on the

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

network. By November 2024 Stepan had 1.6m followers on Instagram. In 2022 Stepan's Instagram page helped raise almost 15,000

euros The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

in humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

Biography

Stepan was born in 2008 in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

. Stepan's owner, Anna, found him when he was little. He has since lived with her in a high-rise apartment building in Saltivka, Kharkiv. In 2020, during the quarantine period imposed following the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Anna recorded the first video of Stepan, and it received several million views. Since then, Anna has been posting new photos and taking pictures of Stepan almost every day, always coming up with new images for him. Initially Anna posted in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

. According to ''

The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' (''MT'') is an Amsterdam-based independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking to ...

'' YouTube channel, by July 2021, Stepan's fame had crossed the country's borders, with Stepan "capturing the heart" of the Russian Internet. In November 2021,

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Cultural impact of Brit ...

drew attention to Stepan in her post. The publication had more than 1.1 million likes and almost nine thousand comments. Soon after, the Italian fashion house Valentino published an ad for one of its handbags, featuring the Stepan.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

On February 24, 2022, Anna and Stepan were surprised by the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, during which bombings destroyed parts of Kharkiv, including residential neighborhoods, causing dozens of deaths and injuries. After the invasion began, Stepan's social media accounts confirmed that both Stepan and Anna survived the bombings, finding themselves in a shelter. Stepan's photos have been accompanied by photos of the destruction caused by Russian forces and messages calling for an end to the invasion and a return to peace. After Stepan and his family escaped to Poland, the World Influencers and Bloggers Association helped them find a safe house in France. Following the Russian invasion the social media posts of Stepan switched to Ukrainian. Stepan's owner Anna told the

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: "We've all changed mentally after seeing what sort of thing this ' Russian world' (a concept of a cultural and political space promoted by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) really is." In August 2022, Anna adopted a kitten, Stephania; she is a

tabby A tabby cat, or simply tabby, is any domestic cat (''Felis catus'') with a coat pattern distinguished by an M-shaped marking on its forehead, stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, along its back, around its legs and tail, and characteris ...

and looks a lot like Stepan. In November of that year, Stepan was appointed as an "ambassador" by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy as part of their "Save Ukrainian Culture" campaign. In 2022 Stepan's social media pages helped raise almost 15,000

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s for food, medicine and other care for other Ukrainian animals who suffered in the war. According to his Instagram account, Stepan returned to his native Kharkiv. In August 2023, Stepan had 1.3 million followers on Instagram. In 2024, Anna announced that Stepan had fallen ill due to stress following a Russian attack on Kharkiv on 23 January and was receiving medications. In March, Anna announced that they had relocated to Germany with her cats.

References

{{reflist Individual cats Internet memes about cats 2008 animal births Culture in Kharkiv Internet memes introduced in 2020 Individual animals in Ukraine Derussification in Ukraine

Biography

Russian invasion of Ukraine

See also

References