Nearly 6,000 Russians were killed in the first six days of the war between Ukraine and Russia, which broke out on 24 February. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in a speech with which he stressed that the Kremlin has not yet been able to bring down Ukraine despite the bombs and air strikes.
Referring to Russia’s attack on Babi Yar – the site of the massacre of Jews by Nazi German occupation troops and Ukrainian collaborators during World War II – Zelensky said:
“This attack shows that for many people in Russia our Kiev is totally foreign. They know nothing about Kiev, about our history. But they have all been ordered to erase our history, erase our country, erase us all.” .
The Guardian meanwhile reports the news that Russian soldiers have landed in Kharkiv, the second most populous city in Ukraine. The news was given by the Ukrainian secret services.
Ukrainian authorities reported that Russian airborne troops landed at around 3 am local time, and that strong fighting with Ukrainian forces ensued.
“Russia strikes Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site in Ukraine”, the Jerusalem Post reported on the attack on the Babi Yar site, where “tens of thousands of Jews were massacred during the Holocaust”.
Strong condemnation came from Natan Sharansky, former deputy minister of Israel and currently president of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Advisory Board.
Thus Sharansky:
“The fact that Putin is trying to distort and manipulate the Holocaust to justify an illegal invasion of a sovereign democratic country is completely repugnant. It is symbolic that the attack on Kiev begins by bombing the Babi Yar site, the largest. of the Nazi massacres “.
The memorial, Sharansky added, is aimed “at preserving historical memory after decades of Soviet oppression of historical truth, so that the evils of the past can no longer be repeated. We must not allow the truth to – once again – become the victim of war “.
Referring again to the attack on Babi Yar, Ukrainian President Zelensky tweeted:
“To the world: what good is it to say ‘never again’ for 80 years, if the world remains silent when a bomb falls on the same site as Babi Yar? At least 5 people were killed. History repeats itself ..”
Babi Yar is a moat near Kiev used by the Nazis for executions.
33,771 Jews were killed there between 29 and 30 September 1941, according to a detailed Nazi report.