At least five people have been killed near Babi Yar — the Holocaust memorial site just outside of Kyiv where tens of thousands of Jews lost their lives during World War II.
Ukrainian officials have reported that on March 1, at least five people were killed and five injured in the TV tower attack — a mere walk from Ukraine's most famous Holocaust memorial.
President Zelenskyy, who is of Jewish heritage, tweeted: "To the world: what is the point of saying 'never again' for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating…"
Russian president Putin has falsely claimed that his invasion of Ukraine would end a supposed "genocide" and "deNazification" of Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the country's east. Ukraine's president Zelenskyy is both a native Russian speaker and Jewish.
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy's chief of staff, said that by attacking Babi Yar, the Russians were "once again [...] murdering the victims of (the) Holocaust".
But what is Babi Yar? Inside the significant site where hundreds of thousands were brutally slaughtered during World War II.
What is Babi Yar?
Babi Yar is a deep ravine that sits on the outskirts of Kyiv. It is the site of one of the most horrific Jewish mass killings in history, carried out by Nazi Germany during its attack on the Soviet Union during World War II.
The most well-documented massacre at the site was the brutal and senseless mass killing of nearly 34,000 Jewish people that took place over the course of two days, from September 29 to September 30 1941.
Talking on Russia's recent missile attack near the site, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said: "We condemn the attack on the Jewish cemetery near the memorial site commemorating the Holocaust of the Jews of Kyiv and the murder of the Jewish people in Babi Yar.
"We call for preserving and respecting the sanctity of the site."
How many people died at Babi Yar?
It is estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 people were killed at Babi Yar throughout the German occupation
Alongside thousands of innocent Jewish civilians, victims of other massacres at the site included Soviet prisoners of war, communists, Ukrainian nationalists and Romani people.
The site of the killings in Kyiv now serves as a memorial to the victims and an international monument against antisemitism.
“Putin seeks to distort and manipulate the Holocaust to justify an illegal invasion of a sovereign democratic country is utterly abhorrent,” Israeli activist Natan Sharansky said in a statement on Tuesday.
“It is symbolic that he starts attacking Kyiv by bombing the site of the Babyn Yar, the biggest of Nazi massacre.”
