KHARKIV, Ukraine - Two zoo workers in Ukraine who stayed behind at the facility to help care for the animals — despite Russia’s military assault on the area — have been found dead.
Feldman EcoPark, located near the city of Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, has suffered serious damage to cages and other animal enclosures as a result of Russian shelling following the invasion on Feb.
24. The destruction also forced the few remaining staff to issue desperate pleas for volunteers to help evacuate large predators, such as lions, tigers and bears, out of the facility.The two employees had been missing since early March, zoo officials said in an update shared on April 19.
Their bodies were just found with bullet wounds, barricaded in a room on the premises."When the war started, they stayed in the Ecopark and helped to feed the animals.