Despotic Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s men are being forced to eat zoo animals in order to survive, sources on the frontline have claimed.

Putin’s soldiers, who have been invading Ukraine since February, had been rumoured to have run out of food months ago and have been living off whatever resources they pillage from locals.

But while most of the locals have fled or been slaughtered, it has left the soldiers with little option but to turn to killing innocent zoo animals and eating them just to stay alive.

The claim comes from volunteers at the Yampil Zoo in eastern Donetsk.

The Yampil village was taken by Russia early on into the invasion, but has since been liberated back by Ukraine on September 30.

And the discoveries made by returning Ukrainians in the area are grim.

A volunteer rescue worker, arriving 10 days after liberation to save the animals, found skeletons and pieces of flesh strewn along the zoo grounds.

They said: “Many animals were eaten by the orcs [local slang for Russian invaders].”

Among the animals eaten, according to local officials, were two camels, a kangaroo, a bison, some piglets, birds and several wolves.

Other animals at the zoo which have yet to be found, but were previously alive there, are bears, camels, antelopes, and wild boars.

Any animals found still alive are being taken to the city of Dnipro for re-homing.

Yampil, home to around 11,000 people – according to the 2021 census – was liberated in September.

When news broke, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the special units which returned the area back to Ukraine.

It is now thought that these units were the first ones to enter the zoo, too.

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