Russian troops are caught stealing a raccoon from Kherson Zoo and packing a llama into a van, amid reports of widespread looting by retreating soldiers

Video footage of a Russian zookeeper stealing animals from a Ukrainian zoo with the help of troops has been condemned after it was released on Sunday.

Zookeeper Oleg Zubkov is seen bundling a llama into the back of a pickup truck and lifting a raccoon by its tail into a cage as it tries to escape.

Another video shows a pair of wolves, taken from a zoo in the recently liberated city of Kherson, Ukraine, arriving at Crimea’s Taigan Lion Park, owned by Mr Zubkov.

A total of seven raccoons, two wolves, peacocks, a llama and a donkey were stolen from the Kherson Zoo.

The video shows a raccoon being picked up by its tail and placed in a cage as it tries to escape

The raccoon was held by its tail before being taken away from the Kherson Zoo by Russian troops

Zubkov, known as the “Lionman”, was found guilty of negligence last year after one of his tigers bit off the finger of a one-year-old boy.

He was sentenced to two years and three months, but after his release served only two months on the condition that he remain in Crimea.

However, Zubkov claims that he was instructed by Crimea’s Russian leader Sergei Aksyonov to travel to Kherson on a special mission to bring the animals of the war back to Russia.

Zubkov called it a “temporary evacuation” and said: “It will be much better for the wolves here: a large territory, the Crimean sun … it was their dream to live here.”

He claims the wolves will be brought back when Russia reoccupies Kherson, although the other animals are likely to stay where they are.

The operation was condemned by the Ukrainian authorities, who accused Russia of looting Kherson while withdrawing from the liberated city.

“The occupiers stole everything from Kherson: paintings from art galleries, antiquities from museums, historical manuscripts from libraries. But their most prized loot was a raccoon they stole from a zoo. Steal a raccoon and die,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter.

Earlier this month, it was claimed that desperate Russian troops even killed and ate animals from another zoo in Ukraine after workers found animal remains scattered on the zoo grounds after the region was liberated.

A total of seven raccoons, two wolves, peacocks, a llama (pictured) and a donkey were stolen from the Kherson Zoo by Russian troops, the Washington Post reported.

The operation was condemned by the Ukrainian authorities, who accused Russia of looting Kherson as it withdrew its troops from the liberated city.

Two camels, a kangaroo, a bison, some piglets, birds and wolves were among the animals slaughtered by Russian soldiers, local authorities said.

Russian troops also appear to have stolen a children’s carnival train in Kherson earlier this month.

The remains of Grigory Potemkin, a Russian prince who lived in the 18th century and was buried in Kherson, were also exhumed from the St. Catherine Cathedral taken.

Statues of Potemkin, a war hero, have also disappeared from the city, along with monuments to other Russian and Soviet historical figures.

Vehicles were also seen driving away from the city’s art museum, “taking everything they could get their hands on,” the curators said.

According to the Ukrainian journalist Ivan Antipenkom, Russia seized “monuments, ambulances, fire engines, bank buildings, hospitals”.

Earlier this morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson “the beginning of the end of the war” when he met soldiers and local residents there.