A courageous wildlife rescuer trying to get home to Ukraine has been left stranded in Israel after the airspace was shut down following the massive overnight strikes on Iran. Warriors of Wildlife founder Lionel de Lange has been bravely feeding and relocating cats and dogs, and even captive lions and bears, in Ukraine against a backdrop of the brutal Russian invasion.
South African Mr de Lange, who has lived in Ukraine for more than a decade, had travelled to Israel to speak to authorities about future lion rescues and was due to fly back to Ukraine tomorrow (Saturday) to continue feeding hundreds of cats and dogs near the Ukrainian frontline city of Kherson. But hundreds of flights have now been cancelled, and airspace across the region has been closed because of fighting erupting between Israel and Iran.
Lionel said: “When I first got to Israel I knew there were problems in the region, but then I have been hanging out in Ukraine. I’m not trying to sound like Rambo, but this is almost like normal for me now, being in a war zone.
“But I feel a lot safer here than I do in Ukraine because their air defence system is so much more advanced, but today, when all this happened, the air raid alarms went off and the people I am staying with got into the bomb shelter and then we started watching the news.
“When we went to the store this morning, it was packed, people were doing a run on the supermarkets and stocking up because they don’t know what they will be able to get. Today is the start of Shabbat, which also has an effect because everything is basically shutting down.
“People are worried, but it’s not like Ukraine, where you have incoming drones and missiles all the time from the Russians. But everyone on the ground here is nervous because they don’t know how long this is going to continue.”
Israel launched strikes on Tehran early on Friday, targeting the country’s nuclear programme and rekindling fears of a full-scale conflict. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned that Israel should expect “severe punishment” in response, and it was reported on Friday morning that drones had been launched.
Mr de Lange said he had looked everywhere to try and get a route back to Ukraine, but he added: “I can’t go through Jordan because their skies are closed, to go south past the Gaza Strip is a no-no, and north is not possible. I’ve tried to find ferries to Cyprus.”
The wildlife rescuer joked he didn’t want to try and use a “smuggling boat” because he didn’t want to end up like “Greta Thunberg and get arrested on the high seas”.
“There literally is no way out at the moment”, he continued, “with Ukraine I could leave by walking across the borders, but here you have nowhere to go.”
Mr de Lange’s route would have taken him on a flight to Bucharest, in Romania, before he would drive across the border to Ukraine. While he is stranded in Israel, Mr de Lange said a Warriors of Wildlife volunteer was on the ground helping to deliver food that has been donated.
Lionel said: “I was hoping to be back by Monday to be there to help with the deliveries, it’s not safe to do it on your own if you have no backup. It’s good to have at least two team members together.
“We are feeding up to around 500 dogs and around 140 cats per day. We can’t physically feed them all on our own obviously, so we work with a network of pensioners and people who have not been able to leave, or have not wanted to leave, Kherson.”
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