russia plans to steal animals from occupied Askania-Nova nature reserve in Kherson region

russian occupation forces are preparing to remove animals from the Askania-Nova biosphere reserve, which is currently under occupation in the Kherson region.

Serhiy Danilov, deputy director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said this on the air of Hromadske Radio.

Scientist believes that the invaders bypassed the reserve for a while,  and the Ukrainian administration was still working there for a long time.

The importance of "Ascania-Nova" for russians increased after the liberation of the right bank of the Kherson region by the Defense Forces of Ukraine. After all, the concentration of russian troops on the left bank increased accordingly.

"Now they have obviously got their hands on the complex and are making new plans for Askania-Nova. They generally announce the plans for the "development of tourism." However, as far as I can tell, from some of their movements, they are preparing to kidnap animals from Askania-Nova and destroy the park of the reserve and the institute. They just want to rob the reserve," Danilov said.

It should be noted that the russian aggressors registered the Askania-Nova nature reserve located in the Kakhovsky district of the occupied Kherson region in the state register of legal entities of the russian federation.

In addition, russian citizen Dmytro Meshcheryakov was appointed as its director.

The Ukrainian employees of the reserve discovered this on March 20 during a visit held by the region's gauleiter Volodymyr Saldo and the representative of the administration of the President of the russian federation Sergey Kiriyenko. The new "director" has already announced that he will "develop" tourism in the protected area.