Lion hearts

FOR a group of blind orphans hearing lions roar was an emotional moment because both they and the big cats are escapees from war-ravaged Ukraine.

- LUCY THORNTON

The refugee students aged 15 to 21, like the lions, were saved from Russian warmonger Vladimir Putin's rockets.

Listening to the beasts at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Yelizoete Terletsko, 18, said: "I was really upset they had to leave our home in Ukraine, the same as me. But I'm really grateful that people helped them like they did me and we are all in a safe place now." Later she squealed in delight as a giraffe grabbed a branch from her and said: "They're so strong." Yelizoete recalled her sister phoning her to say the war had started.

The school for the blind in the northern city of Kharkiv was one of the first buildings to be bombed. The students, many of whom are orphans, were evacuated to Poland a day before it was virtually destroyed.

Yelizoete said: "I thought 'how can there be war in the 21st century? How can that happen? When the bombing began I was worried I wouldn't survive.

"Because we're blind we can hear differently. You can hear more and you feel the noises in your body.

RATS

"It was a horrible experience and I hope it all finishes soon because I never want to hear the bombs again." Initially, the 70-year-old headmaster decided everyone should hide in the school's basement, with staff securing the school's windows with mattresses to protect against rocket attacks.

The students were traumatised by both the rats in the basement, and the rocket attacks outside.

Deputy head teacher Marzena Bialas said: "They're really excited about the lions in Yorkshire. They didn't know they had been shipped over to the UK.

When we told them about it they googled the Mirror. They also phoned their old head teacher to tell him they were visiting lions from Ukraine." The head teacher from the Polish school, Violetta Trzcina, said the 14 students had now been with them for two years.