A non-public Crimean zoo, Taigan Lion Park, owned by Oleg Zubkov, filmed him inexpertly grabbing raccoons by their tails and dumping them into cages in a YouTube video headlined “We are in Kherson. Oleg Zubkov catches raccoons with BARE HANDS!!!”
The video, which was made unavailable Sunday, confirmed him with two assistants, manhandling the llama right into a dilapidated, windowless van as a canine yapped close by. Another video uploaded Sunday showed two wolves that he mentioned had been from Kherson Zoo being unloaded on the Crimean zoo as two Russian tv channels filmed the occasion. He known as it “temporary evacuation.”
“It will be much better for the wolves here: large territory, Crimean sun, and besides, after the quarantine, they will get a male,” Zubkov mentioned. “It’s been their dream to live here,” he claimed in feedback to Russian media on YouTube.
He mentioned the animals, together with any wolf cubs, can be despatched again after Russia reoccupies Kherson.
“For us this is a humanitarian mission. These animals do not have any zoological value for us. We have our own wolves. We have 75 raccoons. We could make canned raccoon meat,” he mentioned earlier than guffawing, in what gave the impression to be an ungainly joke. “Sorry. But seriously we have a lot of raccoons, but we took these animals to keep them alive and so that residents of Kherson would be happy to see them alive again. The animals are in good hands.”
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry posted one of many movies and warned of reprisal for the raccoon theft.
The occupiers stole all the pieces from Kherson: work from artwork galleries, antiquities from museums, historic manuscripts from libraries. But their most prized loot was a raccoon they stole from a zoo. Steal a raccoon and Die. pic.twitter.com/1mqBrrKjHQ
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) November 13, 2022
Ukrainian troops retook the strategic southern metropolis final week after a Russian retreat. Kherson was one of many first main cities to fall to the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion that started in February. The transfer was greeted with celebration in the streets after months of Russian occupation.
The elimination of the animals was broadly reported in Russian media, portrayed as a small shiny spot in an in any other case gloomy image. It got here to mild when nationalist Russian poet and blogger Anna Dolgareva boasted on Telegram that the “only good news” about Moscow’s give up of Kherson was that her good friend managed to “steal a raccoon” from Kherson Zoo.
“We will not return the raccoon,” Dolgareva mentioned. “We will get back Kherson.”
She mentioned a raccoon Telegram channel, Raccoon from Kherson, had been arrange.
Ukrainian animal activist Oleksander Todorchuk confirmed the report on Facebook.
Last month, Russia’s designated administration chief in Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, mentioned that Russia had taken the bones of Grigory Potemkin from his tomb in Kherson. Potemkin, an 18th century Russian army determine, annexed Crimea, based the town, ruled Russia’s imperial lands within the area and created the Black Sea Fleet. He was additionally famend because the lover and shut protege of Empress Catherine II, who was often known as Catherine the Great.
Ukrainian officers have accused Russia of eradicating disabled youngsters from Kherson to Crimea and Russia, in addition to taking away prisoners of struggle. Local unbiased media channels aired video of buses, hearth engines, development tools and even a miniature prepare with its carriages for kids — all being pushed out of Kherson within the days earlier than Moscow surrendered the town.
Kherson’s Kremlin-appointed administration additionally eliminated lots of of priceless artworks and icons from the Kherson Art Museum, emptying the gallery from Oct 31. to Nov. 3, and taking the works, wrapped in rags and packed in unmarked vans, to Crimea earlier than the Russian give up of Kherson, in response to museum workers in a Facebook post on Nov. 4.
“They call it ‘evacuation.’ In our language it’s ‘looting,’ ” the publish mentioned. The works later confirmed up within the Central Museum of Tavrida within the Crimean metropolis of Simferopol. Kherson police announced a legal investigation into the theft of the works, although they’re targeted on stabilizing the lately retaken metropolis.
Police additionally reported that Russian forces had stolen 4 official automobiles of a medical middle, hospital pc tools, medicines, civilians’ automobiles, boats and looking weapons.
Ukrainian officers have accused Russia of looting or damaging lots of of Ukrainian cultural establishments in the course of the struggle.
Russian forces additionally mined buildings and blew up a tv tower, communications towers and bridges in central Kherson, in response to Ukrainian officers. Local media reported witnesses who mentioned they noticed Russians eradicating constructing supplies, furnishings and family home equipment from Kherson.
