Ukrainian Jews, whose family members and relatives died in Babyn Yar area, the site of one of the worst massacres during the Holocaust, have sent a video message from bomb shelters, addressing Russian president Vladimir Putin and asking him to stop the war.
“I was born in Ukraine. I met the war of June 22, 1941 under bombardment in Kyiv. My relatives died in Babyn Yar. On February 24, 2022 I’m in Kyiv under bombing again,” says Romanova Valentina Iosifovna, one of the civilians, continuing “Putin, withdraw your troops and get away from Ukraine. We want peace.”
Oleg Yakovlevich, was born in 1940 in the city of Kyiv. His relatives also died in Babyn Yar in 1941. “Now I’m sitting in a bomb shelter. Enemy bombs are falling on me,” he says, asking Russian president Putin to “get away from Kyiv and all of Ukraine.”
On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a large-scale military invasion of Ukraine, one of its neighboring countries to the southwest, marking a steep escalation to a conflict that began in 2014. Several officials and analysts called the invasion the largest conventional military attack in Europe since World War II.
Russian missile strike on 1 March on Kyiv’s TV tower produced collateral damage to the Holocaust Memorial of Babyn Yar. Known as “holocaust by bullets”, Babyn Yar’s memorial is a capital landmark. In a country with a large Jewish population and a Jewish president, the Russian attack further stamped on the graves of those who have already egregiously suffered. Fortunately, the large menorah, synagogue and a monument honoring Soviet prisoners of war escaped the blast. Speaking directly after the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was “beyond humanity."
