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’re 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. One other video uploaded Sunday confirmed two wolves that he mentioned have been from Kherson Zoo being unloaded on the Crimean zoo as two Russian tv channels filmed the occasion. He known as it “momentary evacuation.”
“Will probably be a lot better for the wolves right here: massive territory, Crimean solar, and apart from, after the quarantine, they are going to get a male,” Zubkov mentioned. “It’s been their dream to stay right 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 can be a humanitarian mission. These animals would not have any zoological worth for us. We’ve got our personal wolves. We’ve got 75 raccoons. We might make canned raccoon meat,” he mentioned earlier than guffawing, in what gave the impression to be an ungainly joke. “Sorry. However severely we’ve got a number of raccoons, however we took these animals to maintain them alive and in order that residents of Kherson can be joyful to see them alive once more. The animals are in good fingers.”
Ukraine’s Protection Ministry posted one of many movies and warned of reprisal for the raccoon theft.
The occupiers stole all the things from Kherson: work from artwork galleries, antiquities from museums, historic manuscripts from libraries. However their most prized loot was a raccoon they stole from a zoo. Steal a raccoon and Die. pic.twitter.com/1mqBrrKjHQ
— Protection 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 liberation was greeted with celebration within the streets after months of Russian occupation.
The elimination of the animals was extensively reported in Russian media, portrayed as a small vivid 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 “solely excellent news” about Moscow’s give up of Kherson was that her pal managed to “steal a raccoon” from Kherson Zoo.
“We is not going to return the raccoon,” Dolgareva mentioned. “We’ll get again Kherson.”
She mentioned a raccoon Telegram channel, Raccoon from Kherson, had been arrange.
Ukrainian animal activist Oleksander Todorchuk confirmed the report on Fb.
Zubkov, who calls himself Lion Man, was convicted of negligence after certainly one of his tigers bit off the finger of a 1-year-old boy in September2021. He was given a jail sentence of two years and three months, and served two months. An occupation courtroom canceled the sentence Oct. 27 and freed him shortly after, offered that he didn’t go away the realm. Zubkov mentioned the Kremlin’s designated chief in Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, intervened to make sure that he might journey to Kherson to take the animals.
Final 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 generally known as Catherine the Nice.
Ukrainian officers have accused Russia of eradicating disabled kids from Kherson to Crimea and Russia, in addition to taking away prisoners of warfare. Native impartial media channels aired video of buses, hearth engines, development gear and even a miniature prepare with its carriages for youngsters — 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 invaluable artworks and icons from the Kherson Artwork 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 accordance with museum workers in a Fb publish on Nov. 4.
“They name 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 introduced a prison investigation into the theft of the works, although they’re targeted on stabilizing the just lately retaken metropolis.
Police additionally reported that Russian forces had stolen 4 official automobiles of a medical heart, hospital laptop gear, medicines, civilians’ automobiles, boats and looking weapons.
Ukrainian officers have accused Russia of looting or damaging lots of of Ukrainian cultural establishments throughout the warfare.
Russian forces additionally mined buildings and blew up a tv tower, communications towers and bridges in central Kherson, in accordance with Ukrainian officers. Native media reported witnesses who mentioned they noticed Russians eradicating constructing supplies, furnishings and family home equipment from Kherson.