Cat Cafes in Ukraine

Chernivtsi

Red Cat Cafe is the only cat cafe in Chernivtsi, on Stepana Bandery Street in the city centre near the university and the main tourist routes. It opened in October 2025, founded by a local couple, one of them a veterinarian, partly with a state small-business grant. Around eight cats live here, all taken from volunteers or rescued from difficult situations, some evacuated from areas of fighting; they include a large Maine Coon. The cafe has two floors: coffee, homemade desserts and light snacks are ordered downstairs, and upstairs there are board games, books and cat toys. The cats go wherever they like, tables included. Children under 10 can visit only with a booking. House rules ask guests not to wake sleeping cats, pick them up against their will or feed them human food, and to take photos without flash.

Ternopil

Koteinia Murkit is a small cat cafe and gift shop on Ruska Street in central Ternopil, billed as the city's first anti-stress cat cafe. It was opened in 2024 by Maryna Chernyshova, who was displaced twice by the war, from Donetsk in 2014 and from Mariupol in 2022, and started it with a state grant. Socialised street cats live in the cafe, sleep in the armchairs and wander between the tables, and they have a private space closed to guests; some of them are looking for new homes. Guests are asked to approach the cats calmly, not to wake them or hold them against their will, and not to feed them from the table. The menu has coffee, seasonal drinks and desserts such as a panna cotta called Panakotyk. The cafe also hosts art therapy sessions, workshops with psychologists, board games and a cat-themed mafia game night.

• Adoptable cats

Odesa

CATmosphere is a cat cafe on Soborna Square in the historic centre of Odesa, set up by animal welfare volunteers as a social project. Its cats were evacuated from frontline towns in eastern Ukraine, including Druzhkivka in Donetsk Oblast, and all are sterilised and vaccinated before joining the cafe, where they live while waiting for adoptive families. Adopters fill in a questionnaire and are screened by the volunteers. Guests sit in three small rooms with about ten tables, walls painted by Odesa artists and climbing furniture for the cats, which also have a private room of their own. There is no kitchen; the cat-themed menu covers coffee, matcha, tea, milkshakes, ice cream, sandwiches and Odesa-style cakes, and board games are available. Shoe covers are required, cats must not be picked up or fed, flash photography is not allowed, and children are admitted from age 10 with an adult.

• Adoptable cats

Kropyvnytskyi, Kirovohrad Oblast

Cat Kav'iarnia is a cat cafe in central Kropyvnytskyi that moved in October 2026 from the Kovalivskyi residential complex to larger premises on Velyka Perspektyvna Street, at the corner of Tarasa Karpy Street. It is home to around fifteen pedigree and mixed cats, including Maine Coons, Bengals, Burmese, Orientals, a Devon Rex, a Sphynx, a Persian, a Scottish Fold and an Abyssinian. Guests pay for time in the cat area and can order coffee, tea, cocoa, cakes and other sweets, read, play board games or take photos. Staff introduce the cats and explain the rules before each visit: hands are sanitised, sleeping cats are not woken, cats are fed only with treats sold on site and photos are taken without flash. The cafe is popular with families and children. Gift certificates are sold.

Zaporizhzhia

MeowCafe is a small time cafe with rescued cats on Viacheslava Zaitseva Street (formerly Lermontova Street) in Zaporizhzhia, near the city circus and the Tsyrk tram and bus stop. A young local couple opened it in early 2024 with help from a state grant. Most of the cats were evacuated by soldiers and volunteers from frontline villages in Zaporizhzhia Oblast or found injured, among them two sisters who lost their sight and cats hurt in shelling. About nine cats live here, all vaccinated and with veterinary passports, and several are available for adoption to new homes. Visitors pay by the hour and have tea and coffee, board games and game consoles at their disposal. The cafe also hosts interactive events and exhibitions of creative work. Photos are allowed without flash, and on weekends the cafe takes a one-hour midday break so the cats can rest.

• Adoptable cats