Lions were wounded and tigers were buried under rubble after Russia bombed a zoo in Ukraine's second-largest city.
Moscow's attack on Thursday turned animal enclosures into heaps of ash, killing most of the rare birds at the Feldman EcoPark inKharkiv, according to staff.
Oleksandr Feldman, the founder of the zoo 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 in order to rescue them.
Ivan Dostov, the head of the zoo's veterinary department, said that vets were examining the "traumatised" tigers and lions, but that they would probably recover. "It seems to me that their lives are not in danger," he told local media.
"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," Mr Dostov added.
Credit: Instagram / @feldman_ecopark
Footage shows the aftermath of the guided bomb strike, leaving the zoo grounds pockmarked with huge 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 just 20kmfrom 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 tourists from Russia and Ukraine alike, holding at least 6,000 animals of 300 species. As Russian troops advanced, the park became caught in the crossfire and was partially destroyed, leading to the evacuation of the most of the animals.
Some animals were later returned in November 2022 and the zoo partly reopened in the summer of 2023 before being declared fully operational a few months later.
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 inRussian attackson 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.
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," Mr Feldman wrote on Facebook. "What we had only just managed to restore with such great effort has been destroyed."
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