Zookeepers in Kyiv talked about running a zoo during wartime and the effect the threat of air strikes and food shortages had on the animals.

Media group Ukrainian Witness released an interview with the manager of Kyiv Zoo, Kyrylo Trantin, and other zookeepers on April 17.

Ukrainian Witness said the zoo had support from other European zoos in Poland, Germany, Netherlands and the Czech Republic and that they were receiving deliveries of food and other dietary supplements.

“We’re ready to open…but we understand the war’s still here and there’s a big danger of bombing,” Trantin said, adding that the war and the zoo are “very different things”.

“We’ve got used to children’s smiles, not to shots or sounds of air raids,” Trantin said. Credit: Ukrainian Witness via Storyful