Denmark - Three lionesses from a zoo in Ukraine have found a new home in a Danish wildlife park.

Knuthenborg Safari Park took in the animals from the Kharkiv region shortly before Christmas, according to a joint statement with the animal welfare organization Dyrenes Beskyttelse published on Monday.

Due to the war in Ukraine, the lionesses had already left the Feldman Ecopark near the Ukrainian-Russian border in August. They were temporarily housed in a zoo in Poland.

Biologist Anne Sofie Meilvang of Dyrenes Beskyttelse said she was very happy that the complicated and risky evacuation from Ukraine had worked out.

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"The smaller zoo was in the middle of a war zone and the lionesses were at risk of malnutrition," she said.

In Denmark, the lionesses have been given their own enclosure in the safari park's large tiger enclosure.

According to the park, this is the first time that lions have ever lived permanently at Knuthenborg.