US veteran adopts stray dog he found while volunteering in Ukraine

A US veteran adopted a stray dog he found while volunteering in Ukraine - before flying it 5,581 miles home.

Michael Jacobson, 32, served in the United States Marine Corps as a rifleman from 2010 to 2015 after joining straight out of high school.

In 2022, while studying for his PhD in mechatronics at the University of Illinois, Michael decided to volunteer for Breaking The Chains - a charity that removes animals from dangerous locations.

He headed to the front lines in Ukraine in May 2022 - to extract animals from war-torn cities.

While there Michael fell in love with a Laika, aged four, - which he named after the city of Kramatorsk - who he discovered wondering the streets.

Michael rescued 20 dogs but immediately bonded with Kramatorsk, and in October 2022, he was able to fly the dog back to the States.

Earlier this month, Michael left his apartment, and Kramatorsk fell off his third-floor balcony - leaving him needing major life-saving surgery to allow him to walk again.