Comment The Russian military has gained a reputation for looting Ukraine, taking washing machines, electronics, cultural artifacts and even the bones of Empress Catherine II’s lover. But the latest theft – including seven raccoons, two she-wolves, peacocks, a llama and a donkey from Kherson Zoo – entered the realm of hoax. A private Crimean zoo, the Taigan Lion Park, owned by Oleg Zubkov, filmed him grabbing countless raccoons by their tails and throwing them into cages in a YouTube video titled “We are in Kherson. Oleg Zubkov catches raccoons with his BARE HANDS!!!” The video, which was not available Sunday, showed him and two assistants handling the llama in a dilapidated windowless van as a dog wags nearby. Another video uploaded on Sunday showed two wolves it said were from the Kherson zoo unloading at the Crimean zoo as two Russian TV channels filmed the event. He called it “temporary evacuation.” “It will be much better for the wolves here: a large area, the Crimean sun, and besides, after the quarantine, they will get a male,” Zubkov said. “It was their dream to live here,” he argued in comments to Russian media on YouTube. He said the animals, including any wolves, would be sent back after Russia recaptured Kherson. “For us this is a humanitarian mission. These animals have no zoological value for us. We have our own wolves. We have 75 raccoons. We could make canned raccoon meat,” he said before blurting out what seemed like an awkward joke. “I’m sorry. But seriously, we have a lot of raccoons, but we took these animals to keep them alive and for the people of Cherson to be happy to see them alive again. The animals are in good hands.” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry released one of the videos and warned of retaliation for the raccoon theft. The conquerors stole everything from Kherson: paintings from art galleries, antiquities from museums, historical manuscripts from libraries. But their most prized loot was a raccoon they stole from a zoo. Steal a raccoon and you die. pic.twitter.com/1mqBrrKjHQ — Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) November 13, 2022 Ukrainian troops recaptured the strategic southern city last week after a Russian retreat. Kherson was one of the first major cities to fall in the Kremlin’s all-out invasion that began in February. The move was greeted with celebrations in the streets after months of Russian occupation. The removal of the animals was widely reported in the Russian media, portraying it as a small bright spot in an otherwise bleak picture. It was revealed when nationalist Russian poet and blogger Anna Dolgareva boasted on Telegram that the “only good news” about Kherson’s handover from Moscow was that her friend managed to “steal a raccoon” from Kherson’s zoo. “We will not return the raccoon,” Dolgareva said. “We will take back Kherson.” He said a Telegram channel with raccoons, Raccoon from Kherson, had been created. Ukrainian animal activist Oleksander Todorchuk confirmed the report on Facebook. Last month, the designated leader of the Russian administration in Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said that Russia had taken Grigory Potemkin’s bones from his grave in Kherson. Potemkin, an 18th-century Russian military figure, annexed Crimea, founded the city, ruled Russia’s imperial lands in the region, and created the Black Sea Fleet. He was also known as the lover and close protégé of Empress Catherine II, who was known as Catherine the Great. The loss of the city of Kherson defeats Putin’s war aims in Ukraine Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of transporting disabled children from Kherson to Crimea and Russia, as well as taking prisoners of war. Local independent media channels broadcast videos of buses, fire engines, construction equipment and even a miniature train with its children’s carriages – all driven out of Kherson in the days before Moscow surrendered the city. The Kherson-appointed Kremlin administration also removed hundreds of valuable works of art and pictures from the Kherson Art Museum, emptying the gallery from October 31 to November 3 and moving the works, wrapped in rags and packed in unmarked trucks, to Crimea before the Russians surrender of Kherson, according to museum staff in a November 4 Facebook post. “They call it ‘evacuation.’ In our language it is ‘looting,’” the post said. The works were later displayed at the Central Museum of Taurida in the Crimean city of Simferopol. Kherson police have announced a criminal investigation into the theft of the works, although they are focused on stabilizing the newly recaptured city. Police also said Russian forces had stolen four company cars from a medical center, hospital computer equipment, medicine, civilian cars, boats and shotguns. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of looting or damaging hundreds of Ukrainian cultural institutions during the war. Russian forces also mined buildings and blew up a television tower, communications towers and bridges in central Kherson, according to Ukrainian officials. Local media reported witnesses who said they saw Russians removing building materials, furniture and household appliances from Kherson.
