Lions were among the animals wounded after Russia bombed the Feldman EcoPark zoo in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv. Photo / Getty Images
Lions were among the animals wounded after Russia bombed the Feldman EcoPark zoo in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv. Photo / Getty Images
Lions were wounded and tigers were buried under rubble after Russia bombed a zoo in Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Moscow’s attack on Friday turned animal enclosures into heaps of ash, killing most of the rare birds at the Feldman EcoPark in Kharkiv, according to staff.
Oleksandr Feldman, the founder of thezoo and a Ukrainian parliamentarian, told local media: “The birds have died – if not all of them, then the majority. A shell hit the aviary. All the parrots, pheasants and rare birds that needed warm conditions were in that building.”
A volunteer, a 40-year-old woman, was also admitted to hospital with head injuries.
The tigers were left stranded for hours in half-destroyed buildings as staff waited for a tranquilliser rifle to arrive to rescue them.
Ivan Dostov, the head of the zoo’s veterinary department, said vets were examining the “traumatised” tigers and lions, but they would probably recover. “It seems to me that their lives are not in danger,” he told local media.
Workers clear debris in destroyed aviaries after Feldman Ecopark was hit by a Russian airstrike. Photo / Getty Images
“Is there any logic to this war anymore? When places like an eco-park are being hit, I see no logic at all. If anyone tries to claim there are safe places in Ukraine, name them for me,” Dostov said.
Footage shows the aftermath of the guided bomb strike that left the zoo grounds pockmarked with craters, while buildings, enclosures and cages have been shredded into sooty debris.
Lions, which had to be moved, were seen lying in the snow-covered enclosures outside despite the freezing temperatures.
Located 20km from the front line, the Feldman EcoPark, which houses pelicans, leopards, zebras, lynxes and camels among others, has been hit repeatedly by Russia since war broke out.
Before the full-scale invasion, it was one of the most popular tourist attractions in Kharkiv for visitors from Russia and Ukraine alike, holding at least 6000 animals of 300 species. As Russian troops advanced, the park became caught in the crossfire and was partially destroyed, leading to the evacuation of most of the animals.
Some animals were returned in November 2022 and the zoo partly reopened in the summer of 2023 before being declared fully operational a few months later.
Employees rescue birds that survived a Russian guided aerial bomb strike on the Feldman Ecopark in Ukraine. Photo / Getty Images
The park’s staff became famous for their daring escapades by feeding, tending to and evacuating the animals during bombardment from Moscow.
Six employees and volunteers were killed and 100 animals died in Russian attacks on the park in 2022.
After the initial evacuation, two volunteers who stayed behind to feed the animals were later found to have been shot dead by Russian soldiers and barricaded into a back room, the park said.
A view of destruction and a crater after the bombing of Feldman Ecopark. Photo / Getty Images
Denis Selevin, 15, who had risked his life to return to the zoo to tend to the animals alongside his parents, was also killed in Russian shelling in May 2022.
The zoo recently became home to two tiger cubs named Dexter and Dakota, as well as lemur pups and baboon infants, which staff described days ago as “a true symbol of hope” for the new year.
“Once again – far from the first or even the second time – bombs are falling on our EcoPark, which has always been a beacon of the ideas of peace, mutual understanding, and tolerance,” Feldman wrote on Facebook. “What we had only just managed to restore with such great effort has been destroyed.”
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.
