Six lions evacuated from Ukraine arrive in Spain, Belgium

Six lions evacuated from war-torn Ukraine, including one rescued from a nightclub, have arrived at two animal shelters in Spain and Belgium, the shelters say.

The lions, along with six tigers, two wild cats, and a wild dog, arrived last week at a zoo in Poland by truck from a refuge near Kyiv following a two-day odyssey skirting battle frontlines. Four of the lions and the wild dog were taken in yesterday by a rescue center in Alicante in eastern Spain run by Dutch animal welfare charity AAP, the group says.

The lions had been living at a shelter near Kyiv after being rescued from “dire” circumstances, with one called Gyz kept in a “small cage in a shopping center.”

Another lion called Flori was kept as a pet in a small apartment where it was fed cat food while another named Nila was rescued from a nightclub where it was kept to “entertain customers.”

“It will be a challenge to improve their fragile health, step by step, through an adequate diet, exercise and rest,” the statement adds.

A truck carrying six lions, six tigers, two caracals and an African wild dog from a sanctuary east of Ukraine's Kyiv reached Poland after a two-day drive to escape the Russian invasion, a Polish zoo official said https://t.co/LiMbYJPgTa 1/4 pic.twitter.com/Ysie1qrTVY

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 3, 2022