A British former prisoner of war is on the hunt for a cat he rescued in Ukraine after it went missing in the UK.
Aiden Aslin saved Jingles from the Ukrainian trenches earlier this year.
It was almost certainly heading for death, but the 29-year-old took it to safety from the front line in the Donbas region, and raised it from a kitten.
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It was given a new home with Aiden's fiancee Diana Okovyta, who refused to leave him behind when she came to the UK as a refugee to live with Aiden’s family and brought him along on the 1,500-mile journey.
But the couple have now been left devastated after Jingles disappeared from his new home in Balderton, Newark-on-Trent, on July 17.
Jingles was due to travel with Aiden and Diana back to their home in Ukraine next week, where they plan to rebuild their lives – but want to take Jingles with them.
She said: “When I fled Ukraine I brought him with me.
“He is a family member, he has been through a lot with me.
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“But we can’t cancel our journey to Ukraine, we just really need him to come home.
“It wasn’t easy to travel with him all across Europe, but I didn’t think for a second about leaving him.”
Diana said neighbours have reported sightings in the area, but Jingles has yet to return to his family.
If he does not return, he will miss an appointment at the vets to get his travel health pass, meaning he will not be allowed to travel to Ukraine.
“We are desperate to have him home,” she added.
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Aiden joined the Ukrainian Marines following the fall of Crimea to the Russian invader in 2014, and chose to re-enlist after his service with the threat of the invasion of the rest of Ukraine looming.
Aiden was ordered to surrender during the siege of Mariupol in April 2022 and was tortured as well as paraded on Russian state television with other foreign fighters who were all falsely accused of being mercenaries.
He was sentenced to death in a show trial but later released in a deal brokered by the Saudi Crown Prince and former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.
Aiden later returned to the war-torn country as a war correspondent, reporting on the ongoing brutal conflict for his YouTube channel.
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