Moscow’s largest aquarium will send hundreds of fish to an aquarium in annexed Crimea that was badly damaged by flooding earlier this week, the Daily Storm news outlet reported Tuesday.
Moskvarium, which is located at the VDNKh exposition center in the Russian capital, will send between 200 and 300 fish to the Sevastopol Aquarium, according to Yuri Kratsov, who heads the facility in Moscow-annexed Crimea.
The fish are expected to arrive at the Sevastopol Aquarium in “several days or weeks,” Kratsov said.
“People are kind-hearted, they understand the challenges, especially now in winter, with snowdrifts and icy conditions,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Storm.
On Sunday night, a severe storm on the Black Sea hit parts of Ukraine and southern Russia, as well as annexed Crimea, killing at least four people and knocking out power to nearly 2 million.
The Sevastopol Aquarium was inundated by flooding during the storm, which destroyed the facility’s ventilation system and killed an estimated 800 tropical fish.
Kravtsov said aquarium staff were working round the clock to clear away debris and repair the facility.
“I think that in the near future, we will fix everything and start replenishing the collection to bring it back to the level we had before the storm,” he told Daily Storm.