Russian forces have bombed a memorial to one of the largest massacres of the Holocaust in their intensifying assault on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
The Chief of Staff of Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky confirmed in a tweet that a missile hit the Kyiv park where the Babyn Yar memorial complex is located.
Just now, a powerful barrage is underway. A missile hit the place where Babyn Yar memorial complex is located! Once again, these barbarians are murdering the victims of Holocaust!
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) March 1, 2022
In a statement, Ukraine's president Zelensky said: "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?"
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…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 1, 2022
Russia's forces intensified their assault on the Ukrainian capital today as a miles-long convoy of assault vehicles was spotted by satellites, heading towards Kyiv.
This is the part of Kyiv where I had spent my childhood. In this area is a monument to the victims of Holocaust “Babyn Yar”. Russians are ruining now this monument by their rockets. pic.twitter.com/RD4XDKfDfJ
— Олександр Мережко (@ChairOlek) March 1, 2022
The target of the Russian air assault is believed to be the city's TV tower. Kyiv independent journalist Illia Ponomarenko said on twitter that Ukrainian TV channels were taken off air following the attack.
Russians are destroying the Kyiv TV Tower.
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) March 1, 2022
They are trying to cut us off from communications. pic.twitter.com/ppi264K5Jf
The base of the TV tower contains a small park where several memorials including the Monument to the gypsies killed by the Nazis are based.
The attack was confirmed by the Babyn Yar memorial chairman Natan Sharansky, who said in a statement: “Putin seeking to distort & manipulate the Holocaust to justify an illegal invasion of a sovereign democratic country is utterly abhorrent. It's symbolic he starts attacking Kyiv by bombing the site of Babyn Yar"
Launching the assault on Ukraine last week, Vladimir Putin said that he was 'de-nazifying' Ukraine, despite it being the only country in Europe with both a Jewish president and prime minister.
Babyn Yar is widely considered to be one of the bloodiest massacres in the Holocaust as well as a mass grave for tens of thousands of Jews and Russians killed by the Nazis between 1941 and 1942.
More than 1 million Jewish Ukrainians were killed during the Holocaust including several ancestors of President Zelensky.
