Oleg Zubkov, the owner of Crimean zoos, who has been taking animals out of zoos in new regions since December 2022 so as not to endanger them during a special operation, refuted his statement about rescuing the inhabitants of the zoo corner of Novaya Kakhovka, which was flooded the day before after the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station was blown up by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“We knew about the zoo in Nova Kakhovka that there was a large collection of animals. But, unfortunately, we had neither the authority, nor the appeal, nor the leadership of this zoo, nor the leadership of the mayor’s office of this city, the administration or the military administration to export those animals. Therefore, unfortunately, all the animals really died there. We are very sorry. There really was a good collection. And indeed, except for the waterfowl, which were many there, all other animals, unfortunately, died, ”the businessman posted a video with a new statement on a resonant topic on his YouTube video hosting channel“ Oleg Zubkov – LION MAN Oleg Zubkov – LION MAN.
According to him, from December 2022 to the present, he has undertaken six rescue expeditions to new territories. Including, Oleg Zubkov said, animals were exported to the Crimea from the zoo corner of Maly Potemkin Island (Kherson region), the Mariupol zoo, the zoo corner at the station of young naturalists in Kakhovka, the zoo in Pridorozhny (Donetsk region).
At the same time, we recall that this afternoon Oleg Zubkov provided ForPost and a number of federal media, independent of each other, with the same comment that he had previously rescued animals from Nova Kakhovka. When asked by a correspondent of our publication, he even listed which animals were taken to the Crimea from the Novokakhovka zoo. And he admitted with annoyance that only goats could stay there. This is what was published in our previous article: ForPost has an audio recording of this telephone conversation.
Now Oleg Zubkov claims that the journalists misinterpreted him, confusing New Kakhovka with Kakhovka. The ForPost correspondent asked the question clearly about Novaya Kakhovka, and not Kakhovka, so if the error “crept in”, it is not the fault of our publication. It is regrettable that such incidents play into the hands of those who sling mud at the Russian media.
Earlier, the administration of the Novokakhovka urban district also reported that all the pets of the Kazkova Dibrova zoo survived, since they were taken to the Crimea in December 2022.
Read on the topic: “More scared”: how animals from the Kherson zoo feel in Crimea
Recall that since the end of last year, the owner of the Taigan safari park, Oleg Zubkov, has been evacuating inhabitants of various zoos and zoo corners from new territories. As ForPost reported, a Melitopol lioness and a pair of raccoons, who had triplets in April this year, have already brought offspring on Crimean soil.
Galina Sergeeva
