Popular Final Fantasy 14 streamer prepares to flee Ukraine over threat of Russian invasion

pcgamer.com:

One of Final Fantasy 14's most prominent streamers has spoken about her plans to flee Ukraine in the wake of a potential invasion from Russia.

Zepla originally hails from Louisiana in the United States but has been living in Ukraine for around eight years, currently residing in Kyiv. She's been streaming all things Final Fantasy 14 for the past five years, garnering 300,000 subscribers on her main YouTube channel and 200,000 followers on Twitch. She's a wonderfully wholesome content creator, usually providing tips for newer players or gushing about her love for Viera, one of the game's playable races. But the end of January saw her tackle a more serious topic—the impending danger for those living in Kyiv, and the fact she would likely need to leave very soon.

«There may come a day soon where I may need to reach out to the community for help,» she addressed her viewers during one of her regular streams. She went into details about the increasing number of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border, and the increasing tensions between the two countries.

She's been making preparations to leave, though it's not as easy as upping sticks back to America. «I have a home here,» she told viewers. «I have my dog Nora and my cat Tallulah.» She's currently in the process of obtaining pet passports for both, though it's a little tricky trying to get pets from Ukraine into the US. «Ukraine is considered a high-risk rabies country for dogs,» she said. «This means that there's a lot of extra paperwork I need to do, and there's a very specific timeline that must be done to get a dog out of Ukraine and into the US.»

Following the stream, Zepla spoke to VICE Waypoint and said how the «normalcy around everything» has been «the most