Since the Russian invasion, a tremendous effort to save domestic, wild, exotic and endangered animals is carried out by volunteers, army and territorial defence in Ukraine. I was fixing on the border when I overheard about an extraordinary evacuation of big cats from Ukraine to ZOO in Poznań.

Natalia Popova who initiated the transport is a former equestrian champion who turned her horse-riding centre outside Kiev into an asylum for animals. Days after aggression her facility filled up with exotic animals — big cats, bears, avians, reptiles — left behind by the owners and found by the army. Locked in enclosures, in ruins, often wounded, occasionally roaming free, and starving, were endangered animals of questionable origin.

They mostly came from individuals who either kept them as pets or bred them for trade or entertainment. Because of in- and interbreeding many were sick, handicapped, others mutilated to be more suitable as pets. They cannot be restored to habitats, nor they can stay at ZOOs.

Everybody wants a private "Disney-moment”, explained Andrew Kushnir, American vet and volunteer, while bottle feeding three fuzzy, cuddly lion cubs he took-over in a duffle bag at Odessa train station. They came from an anonymous individual for whom they became too much of a burden in the wake of war and crackdowns on black market trade. Taken out of context that would be a viral image, with people melting over their cuteness and bond, but Andrew warns me to be very wary about that. He underlines these are not pets, they are extraordinarily challenging, and they are victims.

On Polish side Ewa Zgrabczyńska, director of ZOO in Poznań, went all-in to answer to Popova’s desperate call for help. Recognised in Poland as a vicious defender of all animal-persons, she created a framework that allowed for extraordinary transit the animals to Poznań ZOO for quarantine and care, before redirecting them to asylums around the world. She expressed hope that the entire operation may in fact hinder the Ukrainian black market to a point that it’s no more.

I followed them during few rotations in and out trying to get useful, since outlets I pitched the story to refused to assign or publish it due to security policies. The insane bravado of these two women and all volunteers going to the frontlines for unwanted, wronged, traumatised animals was the most selfless act I can think of and a larger-than-life story on human condition.