"Kodiak" .. a Ukrainian bear takes refuge in the Netherlands

Kiryusha, a 24-year-old brown circus bear who lived in tragic circumstances in Ukraine before being abandoned by his owner who went out to fight, has found refuge in the Netherlands thanks to a foundation and a zoo.

"Last weekend, the Bears in Mind Foundation went looking for a brown bear in Ukraine that had been living in appalling conditions for 18 years," the zoo in Rennes, central Holland, said in a statement.

The bear's situation has deteriorated so dramatically during the war that the institution has done its best to evacuate the bear from the war zone as quickly as possible, a risky operation, according to the zoo where the animal arrived on Sunday.

The bear "Kiriusha" has been living in a small cage in a hotel complex for years, according to the Dutch zoo.

The situation was exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine after his owner abandoned him to participate in the fighting.

"With the war going on, owners are no longer able to take care of the animal," said Ingrid Vermeulen, director of Bears in Mind, a bear campaign.

"Food is becoming scarce and we are now witnessing the routine abandonment of these types of animals due to the imminent threat of war," Vermeulen said in the statement.

"Kiriusha" was a circus bear for the first six years of his life, before he was placed in a hotel that includes a children's camp, where he lived in a cage on a concrete floor "in which he could hardly move," according to the zoo "Offends Dennerpark" in the Dutch region of Rennes.

After a period of quarantine, the animal will live with other abused bears, in a forest run by the Foundation and the Zoo.

Similar to other European countries such as Belgium and Spain, the Netherlands has taken in Ukrainian animals suffering from shock and undernourishment.

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