A British war veteran who evacuated a lion and wolf from Ukraine in the back of a van has described the five-day journey as the toughest endurance mission he has undertaken.
Tim Locks and companion Jonathan Weaving undertook the 2,600-mile trip at a time when Russian forces are subjecting towns and cities across the country to heavy bombardment.
Departing from Lviv in western Ukraine, they drove across the face of the war-ravaged nation to a closed zoo within 20km of the frontline with Moscow’s troops in the south east.
Taking it in turns to drive around the clock, they then travelled with the living cargo in the back of the Ford Transit into Romania, where the creatures have been given sanctuary.
Tim, a qualified firearms instructor, has a background in the security industry and previously fought ISIS in Iraq after volunteering for Kurdish Peshmerga forces in 2015. But the journey brought a gamut of checkpoints, border controls, bureaucratic challenges and the complex logistics of safely loading and unloading the zoo creatures.
‘That is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, endurance-wise,’ Tim said.
‘The total we drove was 4,200km and on the last night we drove in 15 minute shifts, neither of us could cope with any more than that.
‘We became a bit blasé about the fact we had a lion and a wolf in the back of the bus, that wasn’t the issue, it was the driving, the pushing forward and the terrible roads. At one point we were driving through darkened villages doing a good speed but we were still being overtaken by articulated lorries.
‘I have no idea how they do it.’
The Iraq veteran, from the south of England, said the war was ‘spreading westwards’, with Russian air strikes now hitting targets around Lviv.
The pair are preparing to drive home but are ready to stay for another mission or travel back out if the need arises.
‘I am in touch with a wildlife adviser in Romania and he has said there is no shortage of animals that need rescuing,’ Tim said. ‘I know of a lion, a bear and a couple of monkeys that need picking up at another zoo.
‘Help is only help if it’s needed, and while there are people out here helping animals I’m not sure anyone can do the snatch-and-grab type extractions that we can, and we’re quite happy to do that.
‘I will be in talks with the guys in Romania and if they want to do something moving forward we’ll go again.’
Tim, 45, had been in Ukraine on a mission, backed by a crowdfunding appeal, to hand out aid to anyone who needed it. He became aware of the plight of the animals after speaking to a conservationist in a hotel.
The team packed the long wheelbase van full of aid, including toiletries, nappies and baby formula, before heading eastwards on Thursday to Zaporizhzhia Oblast, where the zoo is located.
After three days on the road, they loaded up the lion, Simba, and the wolf, Akela, with the aid of a crane and JCB in a three-hour removal operation.
Given blue-lit police escorts in both countries, they then drove around the clock to another zoo in Radauti, north-eastern Romania.
The exhausted pair, who had to drop their interpreter at the Romanian border due to martial law preventing Ukrainian men from leaving the country, arrived back in Lviv last night.
Tim believes without his team’s intervention the animals would have fallen victim to the invasion, which has brought indiscriminate bombardment of key cities and population areas, as well as food and fuel shortages.
‘Russia is pushing and the map is growing every day,’ he said.
‘There wasn’t much left in the zoo and if the animals hadn’t of come out of there, they would have ended up dead.
‘I don’t believe in tales such as an elephant being helped by a human and remembering 40 years later or whatever.
‘But when Simba was in the pen he came and just lay down about six foot from me, I firmly believe he knew what had gone on.’
Russian air and missile strikes have been extended to the outskirts of Lviv over the past fortnight, with an attack on an aircraft repair plant and more than 30 cruise missiles hitting a military facility.
The British government has advised against all travel to Ukraine, stating that there is a ‘real risk to life’. However many UK nationals have used their own funds or crowdfunded appeals to undertake missions to eastern Poland, with some crossing over the border into Ukraine.
‘I am happy I know where to draw the line, and my line is possibly a lot further along than it is for other people,’ Tim said.
‘It’s been an honour to have been given the chance to help out and if another job comes up and we can help out in a sensible and organised way, we’ll crack back on and go out again.’
Tim’s aid mission is backed by a JustGiving page, which can be viewed here.
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