Lions Vasylyna and Nikola started a new life on 25 April thanks to French-Dutch carrier Air France KLM Martinair Cargo.
They boarded a Martinair 747 freighter aircraft at Schiphol en route to South Africa where they will go to the Lionsrock sanctuary for big cats run by the Four Paws animal welfare organisation.
Lioness Vasylyna arrived at Four Paws’ Netherlands sanctuary on 7 June from Ukraine where she had been kept as a pet. There she managed to escape and roamed the war-torn streets of a village near Kharkiv before being scooped up and relocated to the Netherlands.
Nikola was rescued after ten days roaming the streets near Budva in Montenegro, exhausted and malnourished in February 2022.
Four Paws director, Petra Sleven said: “The relocation of Vasylyna and Nikola means they finally have the opportunity to live in a large sanctuary, surrounded by other lions. While it’s saddening that they never had the chance to be released into the wild due to illegal trade, we are glad to offer them a more natural life here.”