Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has condemned a Russian strike on a television tower that ended up hitting a Holocaust memorial site.
Footage of the TV tower blast was shared on social media earlier this afternoon, March 1, with local reporters claiming it cut off Ukrainian channels from broadcasting. It came after Russia's defence ministry warned it was preparing to hit Kyiv with strikes.
As clips and photos of the tower circulated online, reports emerged of a 'second missile' failing to cause further damage to the tower, instead hitting the site of a nearby Holocaust memorial.
Zelenskyy has since confirmed the incident and given an update on any casualties. '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,' he wrote.
This corroborates other reports from Kyiv. 'Russian airstrike targeting central Kyiv TV tower kills five and damages nearby Babyn Yar memorial, marking the site of the worst Nazi massacre of Jews during the Holocaust,' Avi Mayer of the American Jewish Committee also tweeted.
Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4 News' international editor, wrote, 'The Russians targeted the TV tower in Kyiv. The TV is still working. They hit just near the Holocaust Memorial site Babyn Jar where 33,000 Jews were killed in 1941. So much for ‘de-nazification’,' referencing Putin's aims to 'denazify' Ukraine in his 'special military operation' announcement.
Babyn Yar, a ravine just outside of Kyiv, was the location of one of the largest massacres of the Second World War. In late September 1941, SS and German police units and their auxiliaries murdered more than 33,000 Jews over a two-day period. 'The victims were summoned to the site, forced to undress, and then compelled to enter the ravine,' as per the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The ravine then remained a 'killing site' for two years after the 1941 massacre, with 100,000 people — Jews and non-Jews — believed to have been murdered there.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote, 'Kyiv TV tower, which has just been hit by a Russian missile, is situated on the territory of Babyn Yar. On September 29-30, 1941, Nazis killed over 33 thousand Jews here. 80 years later, Russian Nazis strike this same land to exterminate Ukrainians. Evil and barbaric.'
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Topics: Ukraine, Russia, World News
Cameron Frew