'Noah's Ark' van man risking his life to rescue animals from bombed Ukraine zoo

dailystar.co.uk:

Ukrainian man has been branded a hero after making a series of death-defying trips to liberate animals from a zoo in Kharkhiv that has been caught up in Russian crossfire.

The unidentified hero has posted a series of clips of him in a van, dubbed Noah's Ark, carrying a variety of animals including kangaroos, tapirs and marsupials in the back.Since the war began, staff at Kharkiv’s Feldman Ecopark have been trying to evacuate 5,000 some animals from the shelled park.The efforts of the van man have not got unnoticed by the park who have repeatedly thanked him on social media.Responding to a clip him ferrying kangaroos out of the park last week, they said: "This is very nice, because their enclosures, unfortunately, were repeatedly shelled.“We believe that now they will be fine!"Vladimir Putin's assault on Kharkiv has levelled the once-thriving city and the park has been no exception.

Officials from the park have said that much of the park's infrastructure has been completely destroyed and many animals have died.

As a result, the park is now a dangerous place to be regardless of the bombing as the hungry zoo population, which includes lions, stalk the facilitySome staff members were reportedly killed by shelling trying to feed the animals in their enclosures.However, some animals have been rescued by other daring civilians during rare moments of ceasefire.