As night falls over a nature park on the edge of Kyiv, Ukraine, children crowd around volunteers who carefully open cloth bags and release bats into the twilight.
More than 1,000 spectators cheer and applaud - families, off-duty soldiers, and bat enthusiasts, a few dressed in Goth outfits - as each one takes flight, snapping through the air.
Hundreds of bats, many rescued from war-torn areas in the east of the country, were released late Saturday (4 April) at one of multiple events around Ukraine planned to coincide with the arrival of spring.
"This is important for us as an organisation because these are on a red list of endangered animals," says Anastasiia Vovk, a volunteer at the Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center, which organised the release. "Preserving them is very important."
'Life goes on, despite the war'
All 28 bat species in Ukraine are listed as protected animals due to declining populations.
For many attendees, the event offered welcome relief and an excuse for a family outing after a harsh winter marked by subzero temperatures, nightly Russian drone and missile attacks and crippling power cuts.
Late Saturday, children, many wearing bat-themed T-shirts and hats, watched as volunteers fed the animals mealworms with tweezers before letting them go. Some were allowed to wear gloves and handle the bats themselves.
"Life goes on despite the war," says Oleksii Beliaiev, a 54-year-old Kyiv resident who attended with his family. "The war is the main thing right now, but there has to be something else as well."
Beliaiev runs a small printing business and spends time volunteering for army projects.
How the Ukraine war is impacting endangered bats
The war has displaced animals as well as people. Buildings destroyed by shelling damage bats’ shelters, and explosions terrify the tiny mammals, experts say.
"In winter, bats hibernate, and if they are disturbed, they can die. They reproduce slowly, one or two offspring per year, so populations recover very slowly," explains Alona Shulenko, who headed Saturday’s release.
"As natural hibernation sites disappear, bats move into cities, into cracks in buildings and balconies. But repairs or destruction of these places can kill entire colonies."
All Ukrainian bat species are insect-eating and legally protected, while the country lies on an important east European migratory route.
The charity says it has rescued more than 30,000 bats in total, including 4,000 last winter.
"We are all living in wartime, and everyone has their own struggles," Shulenko tells AP. “But we are doing what we know best. … If we stop what we are doing, thousands of bats will die."
