"They kill animals and brag about it": animal rights activists post new photo-evidence of Russia's ecocide in Ukraine
Animal rights activists have collected new evidence of the ecocide committed by the Russian military in the occupied territories of Kherson Oblast. The Russians are killing wild animals and showing them off in photos.
The UAnimals organisation said that a member of the volunteer community sent them photos in which Russian soldiers from the occupied part of Kherson Oblast show off the killed animals.
"These photos are yet another confirmation that Russians are killing all living things in Ukraine and are committing an actual ecocide," the organisation says.
The animal rights activists found that the photos depicted a shot hare and a pheasant.
In addition, Vitalii Smahol, a researcher at the Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, confirmed to animal rights activists that one of the pictures showed a male red deer shot dead.
The organisation added that the analysis confirmed that the photos were taken in Kherson Oblast, but the exact location couldn’t be determined. The animal rights activists noted that before the full-scale invasion, red deer herds lived in the Askania-Nova Reserve and the Azov-Syvash National Park.
Approximately 20% of protected areas in Ukraine have been affected by the combat actions during the full-scale invasion. Due to the occupation, it is impossible to estimate how many animals have died there.
Nataliia Humeniuk, Head of the Joint Coordination Press Centre of the Defence Forces of Ukraine’s South, said that the Russians are destroying nature reserves in the occupied part of Kherson Oblast by deploying equipment and hunting unique species of animals.
Read also: Russians kill red-listed birds for fun in Kherson Oblast
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