Kyiv rabbi shelters dozens in his synagogue as bombs fall on city

Rabbi Markovitch also reportedly estimated hundreds of Jews remain in the Ukrainian capital. 

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Rabbi Jonathan Benjamin Markovitch pictured on International Holocaust Memorial Day last year (REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko)

Meanwhile, Israel’s Jewish Agency opened a special hotline for Ukrainian Jews attempting to flee Ukraine for Israel and for their Israeli relatives. Sources told Haaretz it was "flooded" with requests. 

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Russian attacks have been reported across Ukraine, including cities with significant Jewish populations such as Kharkiv, Odessa and Kiev

And the local rescue organisation, Hatzalah Ukraine, appealed for donations on the Chesed Fund platform, for medicine, food, fuel, rescue buses, sleeping bags and other supplies. 

The group warned of “many civilian casualties on the Ukrainian side and severe damage to homes and kindergartens.”