The story of a woman who saved a reptile nursery during the occupation in Kharkiv Oblast

In the Kharkiv region, a woman saved a huge collection of reptiles from the Russian invaders for three months.

Before the full-scale invasion of the Russians, a large kennel was located in the village of Ruski Tyshki, 10 km from Kharkiv.

The animals were kept by the researcher Serhiy Prokopiev and his wife Nelya Kuzmenko, but the village was under occupation from the first day of the invasion.

In conditions of shortage of food, without heating, electricity and water, Nelya Kuzmenko saved several hundred reptiles, and Ukrainian defenders helped to take them out from under shelling.

Nelya Kuzmenko told the story of the rescue of reptiles to “Ukrainian Pravda. Life”.

Serhiy Prokopyev and his wife Nelya Kuzmenko engaged in zooculture of reptiles. All photos were provided by the Association of Zoos of Ukraine

The reptile nursery is the brainchild of 52-year-old researcher from Kharkiv Serhii Prokopiev. He has been engaged in animal husbandry all his life – it is his hobby and passion.

Serhiy’s 46-year-old wife Nelya shares the past 10 years of passion. Together they moved to a village in the Kharkiv region and created their own laboratories.

The couple participates in international projects for the preservation of various species of reptiles – they have already traveled twice to Madagascar, where they filmed a film about Parson’s chameleons, whose numbers are decreasing.

Researchers talk about the problem of extinction of rare species, help preserve them in the wild.

“We are engaged in zooculture of reptiles (herpetoculture). Our main task is to create stable groups of reptiles that reproduce”– says Serhiy.

The collection of animals in the Kharkiv region is an important part of this work, because in the event of the extinction of some species of reptiles in the wild, a researcher who has these animals in his zoo will be able to revive the population, Serhiy explains.

The couple’s collection includes chameleons, agams, geckos, skinks, and decorated lizards (especially rare species from these families).

However, since the beginning of the great war, unique animals were under threat.

The couple of researchers has already been to Madagascar twice

“When my daughter and I woke up, there were loud explosions and there was no light. My husband was in Kharkiv at that time. He went on business and was supposed to return the next day, but the war started.

Serhiy could not return to the village, because the front line was there, and we could not go to Kharkiv. So they remained cut off with animals in a cold house”Nelya recalls.

Shelling began on the first day. One Russian rocket hit the garden – 10 meters from the house there was a funnel 6 meters wide. Another rocket blew the gate to pieces, and the glass in the house flew out.

“It was very scary. Russian troops and tanks came in, they placed all this around our houses, they fired at us and Kharkiv. During the 80 days of the occupation, only three flights came to our territory.”– the woman recalls.

The couple had a large house where laboratories with animals were located. Reptiles love warmth – their terrarium should have a lamp and a heating mat.

But in Serhiy and Nela’s house there was no electricity or heating.

“There were gas stoves in two of our rooms. I turned them on to keep some temperature. I moved all the reptiles into those two rooms to keep them very crowded.”– says Nelya.

Feeding the reptiles was also almost nothing, because the couple had a separate laboratory-insectarium where they raised food insects.

“They love heat, so the laboratory must be well heated. And I couldn’t breed insects. I tried, but everything was not enough.

We have a lot of insectivorous lizards that need to be fed every day. Also, many babies began to emerge from the eggs – chameleons, agams, geckos. Viviparous lizards began to give birth. It was terrifying”– the researcher recalls.

First, Nelya began to “plant” eggs – to create conditions for the birth of babies. But there was a critical lack of space and food.

“Insect-eating babies come out in tens, hundreds. They need a lot of small insects. It is very necessary to warm up so that there is a light bulb in every terrarium – that’s all there is. All the baby chameleons that came out – died.” – says Nelya.

A few days later, the woman remembered that there was a gasoline generator at home, but there was very little fuel.

The generator constantly had to be repaired – the neighbor Oleksandr helped with this.

At first, the woman turned on the generator for 4 hours a day to charge her phone, collect water and turn on a few light bulbs for the animals.

However, the fuel became less and less and the start-up time decreased – at some point the generator worked only once every few days.

There was very heavy shelling, so people were constantly hiding in basements. In 2 weeks, the woman convinced her 20-year-old daughter to leave the occupation for Germany.

At that time, Serhiy lived on Northern Saltivka in Kharkiv, on which the occupiers constantly launched rockets.

There was almost no mobile communication, but the couple sometimes managed to communicate on the phone – the woman remembers that Serhii was very supportive of her morally.

Reptiles ate cheese and fruit from canned compotes

Oleksandr and other neighbors helped Nela and her “wards” the most.

“We have a neighbor, Sasha, two houses away. There are three more people left on our street, but it was scary to go to them, because mines were flying.

We are city dwellers – we moved to the village, but we lived like in the city. We didn’t make canning or stocks, so when the war started, we were practically without food, my daughter and I shared some crumbs. Neighbors helped a lot, we became friends”, – reminds Nel.

When spring began, the woman collected herbs for reptiles and insects. But some animals need a specific diet.

“There are reptiles that eat plant food, and skinks can eat everything that a person can. There was a woman Tanya on the next street. She had cows and she gave me milk.

Then Tanya was killed by a shell – she was just sitting in the summer kitchen when it flew into the yard”– the woman recalls bitterly.

The joint efforts of the neighbors helped to maintain life in the laboratory.

Nelya made cheese from the milk shared by her neighbor and fed it to the lizard. Some people gave canned compotes, frozen fruits.

“I added these fruits to cheese – the lizards also ate such food. Thanks to people, they survived.” – says Nelya.

Every lizard needs local heating – they climb out into the sun every morning to warm themselves. Nelya invented how to provide warmth to reptiles even without electricity.

“I spent most of the day putting a pot of water on the gas, boiling water and pouring it into all possible containers and placing it in terrariums.

Reptiles climbed on them like on hot stones”– says the researcher.

At the beginning of May, a projectile cut off a gas pipeline, so even the gas supply was stopped.

“There was no electricity, water, gas, heating – and, unfortunately, it got cold. In such conditions, I could not feed and warm the animals.

Many species have hibernation periods, but not all. Some of the animals entered this “forced hibernation”, many did not survive”– says Nelya.

Before the war, several hundred babies – chameleons, agams and other species – were already sitting in the laboratory. And with the beginning of the war, new eggs began to emerge.

“Only there were more than a thousand babies, but I could not feed and warm them all. I did not expect that it would take so long, because we were told “2-3 weeks”.

Then I began to cool the eggs – I took them to the basement so that the babies simply did not come out of the eggs. It was much more humane than when these children died in agony from hunger and cold in front of my eyes.” Nelya says.

On May 8-9, the shelling intensified. Shells flew into the street every day, the woman and her neighbor constantly ran to the basement.

And after 80 days of occupation, the village was liberated by the Defense Forces.

“We were liberated on May 12-13. The occupiers left, ours only pushed them back a kilometer from Russky Tyshki – they stood there until the middle of September, until the big counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region. All those six months, the Russians shelled our village.”the woman says.

In the breaks between shelling, Nelya tried to pack lizards to take out of the village. On the first day after the deoccupation, a man came to her.

Several hundred reptiles and a dog were loaded into the car.

“We had a big white Italian shepherd who was very stressed, afraid of explosions. She was afraid of fireworks even before, and this was just terrifying for her – she did not go outside for 2 months, although she used to live in the yard.” – the woman recalls.

Some of the animals were taken away by the couple, and the next day a second batch arrived. However, our military could not let them through the checkpoint back – the village was right next to the front line.

“We went to the checkpoint for two weeks, told our story, that our animals are dying and starving there, but they couldn’t let us in.

All our neighbors have moved out. We tried to negotiate with the volunteers, the military, and then we found Vitaly, a military man. He went to save our animals on the same day”says the woman.

Fighters took out rare reptiles two days in a row. They also took away the family’s suitcases and Neli’s painting, which she then presented to the defenders.

“They came under fire, ran home. All the animals were collected and taken away, but it turned out that they did not find all of them. The next day they already took them all away. Almost all of the skinks that ate cheese survived.

Thanks to our guys, they saved a lot of people, they risked their lives”says the woman.

The military helped Nela and Serhiy to take animals from the front line

First, the family took their collection to Kharkiv, and then they were sheltered in Kyiv.

Sergei’s colleague Dmytro Tkachev provided the couple with his apartment, where they live together with their dog, as well as laboratories for several hundred reptiles.

Laboratories, terrariums, and all equipment remained in Kharkiv Oblast. And a month after leaving, a projectile hit the family’s house. Two floors were completely destroyed, and the basement floor, where the woman once hid from shelling, was filled with rubble.

Since that time, Nelya and Serhiy have been in Kyiv for almost a year and are trying to restore the collection of animals. Some reptiles are already mated and will soon produce offspring.

“The military also took away some clutches of chameleon eggs from our house. Many babies came out of them, which during this time grew up and became sexually mature.

We are already expecting new babies from these “children of war”, as we call them. They left the occupation in the form of eggs, and now they have become adult chameleons.” – adds Nelya.

Read also: Scientists saved from the enemy a unique herbarium from Kherson, which was collected for 50 years