In a video that surfaced a week ago from Kherson, Ukraine, the Russian military could be seen fleeing while snatching animals from a zoo. One of them was a raccoon, which Russia claims have been boosting its troops’ morale.
According to Newsweek, a program from the city of Kostroma on the regional slot of channel Russia 1 recounted how the small animal has warmed the hearts and stoked the souls of a paratrooper unit of the nation.
The animal, dubbed “Kherson” after an online vote, was described by the anchor as a “little fighter” and was “a lad in the prime of his life,” according to the program.
An unknown paratrooper told Newsweek about the encounter with the raccoon, “He motivates us. He just drives us towards further victories. Of course, victory will be ours. The raccoon has become a symbol of our unit.”
Ukrainian officials denounced the evacuation of the animals from the Kherson Zoo
The evacuation of the animals from the Kherson Zoo was strongly denounced earlier this week by Ukrainian officials, who posted a strong statement on social media.
“The occupiers 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 die,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense tweeted after the video footage went viral.
According to three sources with knowledge of the meeting, representatives from Russia and Ukraine met last week in the United Arab Emirates to discuss the potential for a prisoner-of-war swap that would be connected to the restart of Russian ammonia exports, which go to Asia and Africa via a Ukrainian pipeline.
The sources claimed that despite the UN’s crucial role in negotiating the ongoing endeavor to export agricultural products from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, the talks were being mediated by the Gulf Arab state and excluded the organization. Fertilizer is produced using ammonia.
The negotiations, however, are intended to remove any last-minute impediments to the project and reduce global food shortages by allowing Russian and Ukrainian exports, they added. The sources requested anonymity to speak openly on delicate subjects.
