[Aleksandr] Potapych, did you miss me?
[GEO] Zoo, Pridorozhnoe, DPR, Russia
[Aleksandr] Let's walk to the playground
[Aleksandr] Stop pushing! Wild boar!
[Aleksandr] See if Baba Yaga's in there
[Aleksandr] Go ahead. Yes, hug him, yes, hug Vitya
[Aleksandr] The Bear and the Woodsman!
[Aleksandr] Go on, bite your paw!
[Aleksandr] Wait, I must take a call. Wait
[Aleksandr] Yes, son? (on the phone)
POTAPYCH, BROWN BEAR AGE: 7 MONTHS BOUGHT FROM A PRIVATE ZOO
[Aleksandr] Yeah (on the phone)
[Aleksandr] You can pour it (on the phone)
[Aleksandr] He's ticklish
[Aleksandr] I'm playing with a bear
[GEO] Donetsk
[Irina Molchanova, Dasha’s Mother]
[Irina] I got a call from a friend
[Irina] It was about 10 am
[Irina] She asked me,
'Ira, have you seen what's going on at our market?'
[Irina] Four shells hit it
[GEO] Mercury Market , Donetsk, January 21, 2024
[Irina] People died, a lot of people...
and children were hurt
[Irina] My neighbour went to buy some sweets
[Irina] I rang him. A woman answered his phone and said he was gone
[Irina] He'd been killed
[Irina] Flowers, wreaths...
[Irina] So much blood. I don't even want to walk on that ground ever again
[Irina] It's just very scary
NOAH’S ARK DONETSK
[GEO] Pridorozhnoe, DPR. DASHA KUZINA. AGE: 7. LIKES ZOOS
[Irina] You play with the dogs?
[Dasha] When I get home from school [Irina] And in the morning?
[Irina] You have time before school
[Dasha] Here! Fetch!
[Irina] Donetsk kids learn remotely because of the shelling
[Irina] A teacher runs a video lesson for 30 minutes
[Irina] Kids in 1st grade are easily distracted, like Dasha
[Irina] She'd sit, draw, and then just get up and go about her business
[Irina] She'd need the toilet or some water, or just stay in the kitchen...
and the class was over
[Irina] I mean, it's just... well it's wrong
[Irina] So, I sent Dasha to her grandma, to go to school in Pridorozhnoe
[Irina] Now, she learns there
[Irina] We'll see if Grandma has the strength, energy, and health
[Irina] I think it'll be OK
[Irina] If not, we'll have to move there, but the main thing is her education
[Teacher] We underline the word 'sun', and here, we underline 'rainbow'
[Irina] If you tell her, she gets excited
'So, when are you coming? When are we going to the zoo?'
[Irina] I try not to tell her that I'm coming to take her
[Irina] I just say, 'Dasha, tomorrow we'll go to the zoo'
[GEO] Zoo, Pridorozhnoe, DPR, Russia
[Gennady] This was a dump
[Gennady] Now look
[Gennady] We planted trees
[Gennady] We landscaped this area too
[Gennady] We built a playground
[Gennady] This is all made of concrete
[Gennady] It's a 'Cheese City' for kids
[Gennady] We have a trampoline, kids jump on it
[Gennady] Soon, we'll paint and spruce it all up
GENNADY KRYAZHEV, ZOO DIRECTOR, LOVES ALL ANIMALS
[Gennady] They're fed, watered, and bathed here
[Gennady] Everyone has a job
[Gennady] I've loved this since I was a little kid
[Gennady] I'd save birds that fell from nests
[Gennady] I'd take home stray cats and dogs and ask Grandma to let them stay
[Gennady] Jays, foxes...
[Gennady] I had a mini zoo at home
[Gennady] There were deer, bears...
[Gennady] People came to visit, and I saw they were interested
[Gennady] You see how it is now
[Gennady] We've grown every year
[Gennady] Many animals were abandoned during the conflict these ten years,
so we're a shelter too
[Dasha] 'This park was founded
by a son of the Donetsk land'
[Gennady] I'm not a son of Donetsk now
[Gennady] Not a son, but a grandpa now
[Dasha] Vitya, let's go to the zoo!
VIKTOR MUSHINSKY, DASHA’S FRIEND
[Viktor] Dasha, did you know that a lion grunts because he's hungry?
[Dasha] Hungry?
[Dasha] Goodness me!
[Gennady] Little Lana!
[Gennady] Where's kitty?
[Gennady] Kitty...
kitty...
[Gennady] Where's my kitty?
[Gennady] No. Give him a broom, he'll sweep up himself
[Gennady] You'll go in? Then change pants!
[Dasha] The lions are here! Here are the lions
[Dasha] Goosey, goosey gander. Are you hungry? Yes, we are!
[Dasha] Wow! Look at the peacock!
[Dasha] Yes, if it opens its feathers, it'll be even better
[Viktor] Yep!
[Gennady] Vitya, this first, then you can ride, roll, and play
[Gennady] We'll tip it over on its side now
[Gennady] You still need mesh on the bottom
[Gennady] We're all getting old and tired
[Gennady] 2 more rolls, and there won't be half left
[Gennady] Be careful!
[Gennady] Stop fooling around!
[Gennady] Don't cry, I'm here!
[Gennady] Whiner!
[Gennady] Done!
[Aleksandr] When the Ukrainian troops came to my village,
they harassed our guys, young kids,
as if they were entitled to certain privileges
[Aleksandr] I saw it all
ALEKSANDR, AKA 'BIG DADDY'. DEPUTY ZOO DIRECTOR . LOVES HORSES
[Aleksandr] Then, when our kids began dying,
[Aleksandr] I joined the militia so that wouldn't go unpunished
[Aleksandr] Then, I was wounded in a shelling...
and I was decommissioned
[Aleksandr] Then, I took my little one here, to show him the zoo
[Aleksandr] The director asked me to help
[Aleksandr] I said, 'Why not?'
[Gennady] Big Daddy [Aleksandr] It needs draining
[Gennady] I'll change the water
[Gennady] When the fighting stopped,
we came running to feed them
over the water
[Gennady] And we also have village houses that burned down
[Gennady] Some of the animals died
[Gennady] Many deer died
[Gennady] Half were blown up by shells
[Gennady] The other half survived, but were badly stressed
[Gennady] We gave them anti-stress drugs, but to no avail, they died anyway
[Gennady] Many pigeons died, other birds too
[Gennady] But there are lucky ones, the bear's lucky. Foxes, too
[Gennady] Cages ruined, but the animals lived
[Gennady] The ostrich enclosures were hit too and the ostriches disappeared
[Gennady] When the fighting ended, they both came back and hid in the reeds
[Aleksandr] Where's Vitya? Vitya!
[Aleksandr] There's a hole, we should fix it
[Aleksandr] Bring the wire
[Aleksandr] We don't do it for anyone but ourselves, I enjoy it
[Aleksandr] I come here early and leave when it's dark
[Aleksandr] I find it interesting. 'How are my horses?' It's my life!
[Aleksandr] 'What's my dog doing, how is he?'
[Aleksandr] It's like a hobby
[Aleksandr] What? What? What? You recognised me?
[Aleksandr] Good girl
[Aleksandr] Somebody filmed them yesterday and didn't lock the gate
[Aleksandr] It caused some trouble: the horses broke out and went for a walk
[Aleksandr] I had to get up in the night and catch them to put them...
back in their stall
[Aleksandr] Right, Latte? Now, you're grounded
LATTE, AMERICAN, DRAFT, AGE: 5 RESCUED FROM GORLOVKA
[Aleksandr] That's it, mate! Yeah, yeah...
[Aleksandr] Now, there's a new lock here
[Aleksandr] Why the pout? I locked you up. Yeah, Daddy locked you up
[Aleksandr] Oh, Latte...
[Aleksandr] No fooling round at night!
What's your favourite animal?
[Gennady] All of them! I love them all. All the animals, starting with dogs...
[Gennady] Cuba, don't touch! Cuba!
[Gennady] That's enough, boy! You're making a mess!
[Gennady] I get home dirty as a pig every day
[Gennady] Come here!
[Gennady] Doggy, doggy, doggy...
[Aleksandr] Their tails have stripes, but not this one
14,000 LIVE AT THE ZOO Check the bone between the legs
[Aleksandr] If I check the bone, they'll have feet like a bear
[Woman] Be gentle [Aleksandr] I don't know how
[Woman] Aren't you gentle with your wife? [Aleksandr] She's different. This is a parrot
[Dasha] Rabbits, do you like cabbage? [Viktor] Of course they do, and carrots
[Viktor] They love it! [Dasha] It's so cute!
[Viktor] Look how beautiful it is! [Dasha] Yes, I like it
[Viktor] Yeah [Dasha] So cool!
[Viktor] Aren't you afraid of it? [Dasha] No, I'm not. They're so cute!
[Dasha] By the way, they're scared of humans
[Aleksandr] What if you give one a snack and not the other? He's begging...
[Aleksandr] They understand everything, they do!
[Dasha] They like me now. Crazy! They like me because I pet them
[Viktor] This one likes me!
[Viktor] Hi, Llama! I'll feed you while no one's watching
[Viktor] It likes biscuits? So do I!
LLAMA AGE: 1.5 YEARS BORN IN PRIDOROZHNOE ZOO
[Woman] Enough!
[Woman] Quit spitting! Gosh, what are you doing?
[Woman] That's it. Now, you're burping
[Woman] You rascal!
[Woman] Where's the shelling usually from?
[Aleksandr] What? [Woman] Which way?
[Aleksandr] That way, please
[Gennady] Never mind!
[Gennady] You asked so we showed you
[Gennady] These horses were brought here
[Gennady] With all the shelling, we couldn't get them on their feet to take them
[Gennady] They were skinny
[Gennady] One horse died en route, and another when we got here
[Gennady] We weren't able to give them vitamins
[Gennady] I was with them day and night, giving them water
[Gennady] We brought them here and fed them. They were pregnant,
but they miscarried
[Gennady] Only 1 became a happy mum. That one, right?
[Aleksandr] This one [Gennady] Oh yes, her
[Aleksandr] Romakha
[Gennady] She saved her offspring
[Gennady] The black swans are sitting on their eggs. They'll have babies
[Gennady] See?
[Gennady] No one's touching your eggs!
[Voice 1] What are you baaing about? [Voice 2] He's always begging
CAMEROON SHEEP. AGE: 6 DONATED TO THE ZOO
[Voice 2] These were born last night. See? [Voice 1] They won't come out, they're hiding
- What are these sheep like cows? [Voice 1] Where?
[Voice 2] These are yaks [Voice 1] Yaks not sheep!
YAKS. AGE: 2 BROUGHT FROM THE REPUBLIC OF CHECHNYA
[Voice 1] Wow! Some sheep!
[Voice 1] Humiliated and demoted to sheep!
[Viktor] The raccoons are so nice!
[Viktor] Raccoon, give your paw... Your paw!
COMMON RACCOON. AGE: 7 MONTHS BORN IN PRIDOROZHNOE ZOO
[Viktor] Hello there!
[Irina] She was 'meowing' for ages. She pretended to be a cat
[Irina] She was a pretend cat for a long time, probably until she was 3
[Irina] What does she draw? Cats! She mostly draws cats
[Dasha] She's so scared! [Viktor] She's fast!
[Dasha] Look how she does it! She bounces around
PRINCE, BLACK PANTHER AGE: 10 MONTHS TRANSPORTED FROM MOSCOW
[Dasha] Did you know how beautiful and fast she is?
[Viktor] But she's also very dangerous for humans
[Irina] She even folded her arms and said: 'Look at my paws!'
[Irina] She has no hands, only paws and even claws
[Irina] She asked: 'Do my claws look sharp?'
[Aleksandr] Come, my pretty. Get up there!
[Aleksandr] Come on, that's it, I'm stroking you, look I'm petting! Happy?
[Aleksandr] That's it! How couldn't I find time? How could I not find time to pet you?
[Dasha] Eat! Don't get messy!
[Viktor] I'm not making a mess [Dasha] I'm telling the sheep
[Viktor] Hello, deer! How are you?
[Gennady] There was a dump here
[Gennady] We moved it and covered some of the land with earth
[Gennady] The deer live here now
[Aleksandr] Come, I'll take it off
[Aleksandr] We'll have to catch you and cut the rope
[Aleksandr] He's got it round his antlers again!
[Viktor] Look at these cute deer!
[Viktor] Look at that one, she's got no antlers!
[Gennady] These are eagles. This one's missing a wing
[Gennady] Last year, the army brought us a wounded eagle
[Gennady] The birds wouldn't be able to live in the wild wingless
[Gennady] We feed and care for them as our own children
[Viktor] You see, it's been shot. Some of its feathers are missing
[Dasha] Poor eagles!
[Irina] I'm sick of this war, and tired of the shelling
[Irina] When will the swine leave us alone? When will Ukrainians stop bombing us?
[Irina] She was jumping up and down, and she was in tears, shaking like this
[Dasha] I'm afraid
[Irina] 'When will we go to a water park?' 'When will we go to...
just a park?'
[Irina] Questions... always only questions
[Aleksandr] I've 1 child left out of 3. My youngest and oldest daughters are gone
[Aleksandr] When...
[Aleksandr] When the Ukrainians were still in Elenovka and Volnovakha,
I got a call: 'Come and get your daughter!'
[Aleksandr] I went to Volnovakha and found her lying on the floor, on the tiles
[Aleksandr] I lost my mind then
I took her and left
[Aleksandr] Since then, I've had no love for Ukraine
[Aleksandr] I'll say this, as a man who's had to bury his children
[Aleksandr] I know what it means to bury your own children
[Aleksandr] I wouldn't wish that even on my worst enemy
[Aleksandr] It's very hard and painful
[Aleksandr] When they say 'time heals,' it's nonsense, all lies
[Aleksandr] Nothing heals it, nothing!
[Aleksandr] Parents should be buried by their children, not vice versa
[Aleksandr] Yes, it's tough
[Aleksandr] Is she in heat? [Gennady] Yes. She roars and roars
[Gennady] There'll be cubs soon
[Gennady] These tigers are from Mariupol. This bear is from Gorlovka
[Gennady] Here we have dogs...
from bombed houses
they fled from
[Gennady] Many of them!
[Gennady] We have swans here
[Gennady] Two are injured
[Gennady] That one there has no wing
[Viktor] That's a hippo!
[Viktor] Take one on your tongue
[Dasha] Oh, look! Look how they go!
[Dasha] I'm going to get soaked! My pants are already wet from all this!
[Gennady] Guarding the meat, Simba?
SIMBA, ASIATIC LION AGE: 5 RESCUED IN MARIUPOL
[Gennady] No one's taking it from you
[Gennady] Once he eats, he'll be calm as a millpond
[Viktor] What a pit you've dug!
[Aleksandr] You need a deeper one?
[Aleksandr] So that you can fit in?
Was the fawn run over?
[Aleksandr] Which fawn? - That one
[Aleksandr] That's from shelling
[Aleksandr] They brought her from Donetsk and asked for help
[Aleksandr] She had worms, we had to treat her wounds...
[Aleksandr] She's fine, adapting...
[Aleksandr] She walks poorly, but she can walk
[Aleksandr] It's just that she has to move on muscles alone
[Aleksandr] Her thigh bones were badly damaged, so I had to remove them
BAMBI, EUROPEAN ROE DEER AGE: 3 MONTHS RESCUED IN DONETSK
[Aleksandr] She walks, nonetheless... The main thing's that she's alive
[Man] There's that girl Greta Thunberg, who advocates for nature
[Man] She swims in the sea, fights for nature but has never planted a single tree
[Aleksandr] I don't advocate anything [Man] But you plant trees
[Aleksandr] Yeah [Man] That's the main thing
[Aleksandr] What scariest for the animals?
[Aleksandr] Being locked up
[Aleksandr] You have to provide them with some variety every day
[Aleksandr] Today, I made a slide for those tigers, and, tomorrow, I'll bring some stumps
[Aleksandr] Yesterday, I put the pelicans' food in a bucket, and today, in a trough
[Aleksandr] Tomorrow, they'll catch fish themselves
[Aleksandr] They need variety
[Aleksandr] I've just loved animals since I was a kid...
dogs, horse riding, fishing...
[Aleksandr] Foma!
[Aleksandr] He's like a phlegmatic man... Well, not a man, a phlegmatic bear
[Aleksandr] I gave him some lard and bread, he ate and went upstairs to sleep
FOMA, ASIAN BLACK BEAR. AGE: 20 RESCUED FROM TRAVELLING CIRCUS
[Aleksandr] A 'Tochka-U' (tactical missile complex) shard landed over there, about 2 metres from Foma
[Aleksandr] When we got to him,
his ears were bleeding, he was concussed and had fragment wounds
[Aleksandr] We treated him and put him in another enclosure
[Aleksandr] Now, Foma's not just a bear, but a lucky dog
[Viktor] Clubfoot, open up! Give me the honey!
[Dasha] Give me honey! It's me, the panther
[Aleksandr] They're eating like elephants now
[Aleksandr] I'm feeding them so that they have more than enough
[Aleksandr] Here, Dasha! Some more
[Aleksandr] She worked in a circus, but they decided to put her down
[Aleksandr] We took her in...
DASHA, BROWN BEAR. AGE: 12 MOSCOW CIRCUS VETERAN
and fattened her up, but I don't feed her meat
[Aleksandr] Why? If you give a bear meat, it stops obeying and attacks people
[Aleksandr] She won't eat honey,
but she really loves grapes, they're a big treat for her
[Aleksandr] Now, let's go feed Potap
[Aleksandr] Animals don't have this human treachery in them
[Aleksandr] They won't spit on you or hit you
[Aleksandr] If they trust me, I trust them
[Aleksandr] I can freely turn my back on my animals,
which I can't say about humans
[Aleksandr] They smile at you, but in 5 minutes...
[Aleksandr] Potapych...
[Aleksandr] Here!
[Aleksandr] He had private owners... They thought of him as a toy
[Aleksandr] They called and asked, 'Will you take him?'
[Aleksandr] We said: 'Of course, why not?'
POTAPYCH, BROWN BEAR. AGE: 7 MONTHS BOUGHT FROM A PRIVATE ZOO
[Aleksandr] Tastier with lard, eh?
[Aleksandr] That's in addition to the 3 loaves of bread and biscuits he ate this morning
[Aleksandr] That was nothing... a pre-lunch warmup
[Aleksandr] This little buddy was brought in half-dead
[Aleksandr] He's eaten his fill, fattened up
[Aleksandr] Little friend, eh?
[Aleksandr] And these are just neighbourhood kids. Calm as elephants, eh?
[Aleksandr] You're calm, right?
[Irina] 'Meow!' I said, 'Stop that! What are you doing? You're almost grown up'
[Irina] Yesterday, she saw a panther at the zoo, so now she's drawing panthers
'I want to be a panther'
[Irina] I told her: 'Well, you can't because you were born human'
[Irina] She said, 'I threw a coin in yesterday and made a wish, it has to come true
[Irina] Vitya said, in 30 years, my wish will come true and I'll become a panther'
[Irina] Well, what could I say to that?
[Aleksandr] Yes, yes, I hear you! One sec
YULA, AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE. AGE: 18 PURCHASED FROM GYPSIES
[Woman] Can you tell if she'll have a boy or a girl?
[Aleksandr] Of course, you can with an ultrasound
[Aleksandr] You can even do a DNA test to see who the father is
[Gennady] These two girls…
[Gennady] Come in... they're a bit afraid of you [Aleksandr] The cub?
[Aleksandr] He fears I'll give him a shot or treat him, he remembers that time well
[Gennady] The military called and said:
[Gennady] 'There is a wounded tiger cub, will you take it in?
[Gennady] Because, otherwise, he'll die'
[Gennady] They said:
'If you don't amputate his leg, the infection will spread and that's it
KHERSON, BENGAL TIGER. AGE: 7 MONTHS RESCUED FROM KHERSON REGION
[Gennady] We did have to amputate,
but he can still mate and do everything else
[Aleksandr] If the animals get restless, we give them anti-stress injections
or try to distract them,
maybe put another animal next to them to divert their attention,
because they fight when they get severely stressed
[Aleksandr] Today, we can enter the tiger enclosure,
but if there's shelling or a flyby at night, he won't let you in the next day
[Aleksandr] He'll pounce on you, as it's hard on him
[Aleksandr] She just wants to play with the camera, it's blinking, so she's curious
[Aleksandr] Leave it here for 5 minutes... You can say, 'Lions did it!'
[Viktor] That's a pride!
[Viktor] Lions like cabbage
[Dasha] Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!
[Dasha] We won't hurt you, come on out!
[Voice] Hello, children [Children] Hello
[Gennady] When the kids come,
they're so happy to see or pet a pony or a llama...
or to watch some birds
[Gennady] After 10 years of shelling, they're anxious,
so I want their visits to act as a kind of therapy
[Aleksandr] Our kids no longer even react
[Aleksandr] Shelling is just an everyday occurrence for them
[Aleksandr] The kids' morale is battered
[Viktor] No, I'm not afraid, I lie on the floor and cover my head
[Child] It's especially annoying at night
[Child] I can't sleep [Child 2] I'm used to it
[Aleksandr] Some even say: 'I didn't expect it to be so relaxing just to walk around
[Aleksandr] It's so peaceful and green here'
[Aleksandr] We're doing our best
[Child] We look at the animals, feed them, take pictures...
[Child] Play on the playground, watch the animals...
[Child] There are a lot of animals to see here that you won't see in everyday life
[Child] I like dogs and monkeys the most
[Child] I love horses, bears, and lionesses…
[Aleksandr] Children's laughter is pleasant to hear and makes your soul rejoice too
[Aleksandr] Maybe we can bring them some joy by working here
[Aleksandr] Someone someplace may remember: there's a zoo here - a place to relax