Zoo reopening meant life.. here you forget the fighting
AT one of Ukraine’s oldest zoos, there is a predator perhaps more dangerous than a lion, tiger or polar bear.
It’s the rocket which struck in the early days of Vladimir Putin’s fullscale invasion.
Two years on, it is on display at Mykolaiv Zoo, serving as a stark reminder of the terror rained upon the city’s people… and animals.
The attraction, in southern Ukraine, shut on the second day of Russia’s offensive in February 2022 – and days later was hit.
Now part of its history, the rocket protrudes out of the ground by the polar bear enclosure.
This is not the first conflict in the 123-year-old attraction’s time – it has survived two world wars.
After initially closing following the outbreak of the Russian invasion, the zoo later reopened.
Now, amid war, it acts as a place for people – as its director poignantly puts it – to “rest their souls”.
Zoo director Volodymyr Topchy gave the Mirror a guided tour. The port city of Mykolaiv was almost encircled by Russian forces at the outset of the invasion.
Among the zoo’s 4,500 animals are giraffes, flamingos and big cats.
Volodymyr, 69, says: “Many people say Russia’s assault was unexpected. It wasn’t for me. As early as in October 2021 we started to store more food.
“When everything started we were not prepared mentally because it’s a war, it’s shelling. On the second day we closed the zoo for visitors and things started to unravel.”
Residents rallied to help supply food. “Some brought bags of apples, some brought a truck of grain or a bucket of honey, eggs, bread. It was citizens and volunteers, they started feeding the zoo.”
Had locals not helped, things would have been “bad” he says – but food wasn’t the only problem. “The first missile fell on the territory of the zoo near the polar bear enclosure. Eight missiles landed in total. Luckily nobody was hurt.
“And when the Russians blew up the water pump station in Kherson, Mykolaiv was left without water.”
Bore holes were drilled at the zoo to supply water and luckily its main still had its biggest resource.
Volodymyr, who has worked at the zoo for 47 years, says: “The employees are the main thing for the zoo because animals could be sourced, could be brought from other zoos but if we had lost our staff the zoo would have gone extinct.
“The knowledge they possess is unique. We have many employees working for decades.”
For Volodymyr, there was no question of leaving. Tickets were also sold online across the world to help provide funds.
And when people fled the city at the war’s outset, the zoo opened its arms to their pets – such as parrots, guinea pigs and lizards. In all, more than 500 animals were taken in.
“We had wounded ponies from a village in Kherson region, the active fighting zone,” Volodymyr says.before the war, the zoo attracted 350,000 visitors a year. It reopened for weekends in summer 2022 and almost fully reopened that autumn.
“The zoo reopening meant life for us,” says Volodymyr. “The people were very grateful for us. They were coming in to say thank you.”
Two of the zoo’s employees have been killed on the front line and 12 are now fighting.
Volodymyr says: “We launched free entrance for military . The zoo is a social facility, it helps with rehabilitation. People come here to relax and forget about the atrocities of war.”
Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 31,000 of its soldiers – not Russia’s lies of 300,000 – have been killed in two years of war, along with “tens of thousands of civilians”.