A US veteran adopted a stray dog he found while volunteering in Ukraine - before flying it 5,581 miles home. <br /><br />Michael Jacobson, 32, served in the United States Marine Corps as a rifleman from 2010 to 2015 after joining straight out of high school.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />He headed to the front lines in Ukraine in May 2022 - to extract animals from war-torn cities.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Michael rescued 20 dogs but immediately bonded with Kramatorsk, and in October 2022, he was able to fly the dog back to the States.<br /><br />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.
