The content on this page may be difficult for some to view, however these images were taken to connect us to the experiences of others in the hope we can better understand their suffering.
Confronting the Enemy
One Family’s Horrific Loss While Attempting to Rescue Zoo Animals
A squirrel monkey at the Feldman Ecopark Zoo awaits a move to a safer location to get away from Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 2, 2022.
‘When the war started, I got down on my knees and told the animals I’m sorry. They don’t understand,’ Svetlana Vishnevetskaya, Vice Director at Feldman Ecopark Zoo, tells visiting journalists as staff and volunteers in heroic efforts evacuate animals from the park that has been shelled repeatedly during the Russian invasion. At least five employees have been killed since the war began, including two found shot to death at close range, and over 100 animals perished including some chimpanzees, orangutangs and kangaroos that died of heart failure. The animals have been moved to other zoos around the country from a temporary transit enclosure at the Feldman house. In spite of the risk, all workers say they are there until the end to help the animals.
The next day, May 5, 2022, while the staff continued to work on moving the animals to safety, the zoo was hit by Russian shelling. Dennis Selevina, a 15-year-old volunteer who helped care for the animals alongside his parents, was killed, two others were also injured by shrapnel and their vehicles destroyed.
In the parking lot of the hospital, upon learning that Dennis had died, his parents and other zoo staff confront a wounded captured enemy soldiers who had also been brought to the hospital at the same time.
Yevgen Zubchyk, 22 years old, helps as staff and volunteers evacuate animals at the Feldman Ecopark Zoo that has been shelled since the beginning of the Russian invasion on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 4, 2022. The next day he was injured by shrapnel from Russian shelling.
A bus pierced by artillery at the Feldman Ecopark Zoo in Kharkiv, Ukraine, where staff work to relocate as many animals as possible.
‘When the war started, I got down on my knees and told the animals I’m sorry. They don’t understand,’ said Svetlana Vishnevetskaya, Vice Director at Feldman Ecopark Zoo as she weeps near a bus where she witnessed the driver killed.
A bus pierced by artillery at the Feldman Ecopark Zoo in Kharkiv, Ukraine, where staff work to relocate as many animals as possible.
More than 100 animals at the Feldman Ecopark Zoo have died since the Russians began bombarding the area despite the efforts of staff and volunteers to move as many animals as possible to safer locations.
Zoo staff and volunteers work to move Llamas from the Feldman Ecopark Zoo in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 4, 2022.
More than 100 animals at the Feldman Ecopark Zoo have perished since the Russians began bombarding the area despite the efforts of staff and volunteers to move as many animals as possible to safer locations.
Tymofii Kharchenko, 25 looks at a missile that previously struck the park and failed to explode. In other attacks, at least five people and more than 100 animals where killed by Russian missiles that exploded at the zoo.
Zoo staff and volunteers were forced to abandon rescuing an ostrich and take shelter after a shelling at the Feldman Ecopark Zoo on the outskirts of Kharkiv on May 4, 2022.
Dennis Selevina, a 15-year-old zoo volunteer, is rushed to the hospital after being fatally injured during Russian shelling at the Feldman Ecopark Zoo on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 5, 2022.
Yevgen Zubchyk, 22 years old, was injured by shrapnel while working to relocate animals at the Feldman Ecopark Zoo in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 5, 2022.
A captured, injured Russian soldier is brought to the hospital for treatment at the same time as zoo staff and volunteers arrived with their wounded friends on May 5, 2022 in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
A grief-stricken zoo staffer angrily confronts a captured enemy soldier after learning of the death of Dennis Selevina, a 15-year-old volunteer at Feldman Ecopark Zoo who was killed by Russian shelling as rescuers were evacuating animals on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 5, 2022.
An injured captured enemy soldier, possibly a Ukrainian separatist aligned with Russian forces, waits blind-folded in the parking lot of a hospital for treatment on May 5, 2022.
Svetlana Vishnevetskaya, Vice Director and other distraught zoo staff confronted the captured soldier with the reality of their grief after learning of the death of Dennis Selevina, a 15-year-old volunteer at Feldman Ecopark Zoo who was killed as rescuers were evacuating animals on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 5, 2022.
Serhii Kolesnikov weeps upon hearing news that Dennis Selevina, a 15-year-old volunteer at Feldman Ecopark Zoo died at hospital after being shelled as rescuers were evacuating animals on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 5, 2022.
Vitalii Selevini, father of 15-year-old Dennis who was killed by Russian shelling, shows his son’s blood on his hands to a captured enemy soldier who was brought to the hospital around the same time as the mortally wounded teenager on May 5, 2022.
Svetlana Vishnevetskaya, Vice Director of the Feldman Ecopark Zoo, comforts Vitalii and Svetlana Selevini, who just lost their teenage son Dennis, who was killed when the Russians shelled the zoo while they were working to transport animals to safer locations on May 5, 2022.