This is the moment Ukrainian President Vladimir Green discovers in the middle of the interview that the site of the Babin Yar Holocaust memorial in Kyiv was hit by Russian missiles.
In an interview published by Channel 4 News, the president was talking to a journalist about his family when Chief of Staff Andriy Ermak burst into the room and said: “Now it’s [Russia] bombed Babin Yar.
Zelensky, who is a Jew himself and lost several members of his family in the Holocaust, turned to his deputy and asked, “Now? Babin Yar? ”Eyes wide with disbelief.
After a moment of stunned silence, the president adopted a steely form of reception before sarcastically remarking: “This … is Russia. Congratulations. ‘
A moment later he leaves the room and returns to work.
Babin Yar is a ravine near the center of Kyiv and the site of one of the largest massacres in the Nazi campaign against the Soviet Union during World War II.
Some 150,000 people were killed by the Nazis in Babin Yar – including 34,000 Jews in two horrific days in 1941 – and the gorge is now the site of a post-war memorial.
Five people were killed in a rocket attack on the site on Tuesday, which also toppled a 1,300-foot-high Kyiv TV tower.
The President (l) was talking to a journalist about his family when Chief of Staff Andriy Ermak (right) stormed the room and said: “It is now [Russia] bombed Babin Yar. Zelensky, who is a Jew himself and lost several members of his family in the Holocaust, turned to his deputy and asked, “Now? Babin Yar? ”Eyes wide with disbelief
After a moment of stunned silence, the president adopted a steely form of reception before sarcastically remarking: “This … is Russia. Congratulations. ‘
View of the Babin Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv on March 2, 2022. Five people were killed in Tuesday’s attack on Babin Yar, the site of the largest massacre of Kiev Jews during World War II and a memorial and worship site such as Russia. rockets shot down a nearby TV tower
This image was taken in a split second after a Russian rocket hit the Babin Yar Gorge and the Holocaust Memorial in central Kyiv and the 1,300-foot-high location of Kiev’s TV Tower.
A dog walks through the rubble of the road in front of the TV Tower in Kyiv on March 2, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. President Vladimir Zelensky said at least five people were killed when a shell hit the area yesterday, which is next to the Holocaust Memorial in Babin Yar.
Babin Yar was one of many places in Kyiv that were hit by Russian missiles on Tuesday when Putin launched an indiscriminate bombing raid on the capital.
On Tuesday afternoon, a series of explosions took place around the 1,300-foot television tower in central Kyiv, which was built next to the Babin Yar Gorge, the site of a Holocaust memorial.
Five people were reportedly scattered to pieces by a family walking together in the blasts. It is unclear whether there are any more victims.
After the attack, Zelenski tweeted: “To the world: what’s the point of saying ‘never again’ for 80 years if the world is silent when a bomb falls on the same spot on Babin Yar?” At least 5 killed. History repeats itself … ‘
At the beginning of the invasion, Putin said his “military operation” was not intended to occupy Ukraine, but instead “demilitarized” and “denazified” the nation.
His remarks were met with an international reaction condemning the total invasion, but the claim that his troops were there to “denazify” Ukraine’s governing body was ridiculous.
President Zelenski is Jewish and many of his relatives were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
After the attack, Zelenski tweeted: “To the world: what’s the point of saying ‘never again’ for 80 years if the world is silent when a bomb falls on the same spot on Babin Yar?” At least 5 killed. History repeats itself … ‘
Zelenski is pictured paying tribute to his grandfather, Semyon Ivanovich Zelensky, in 2019. Semyon was a member of the Soviet Red Army and fought the Nazis during World War II.
An audiovisual installation was filmed at the Babin Yar Memorial in September 2020. On September 29-30, 1941, approximately 34,000 Jews were killed in the Babin Yar Gorge. In the background is the TV tower of Kyiv
Moreover, the president’s grandfather, Semyon Ivanovich Zelensky, was a member of the Soviet Union’s Red Army and fought against advancing Nazi troops during World War II.
In a post on Facebook in 2019 on the eve of his presidency, Zelenski posted a photo from his hometown of Krivoy Rog on his grandfather’s tombstone in honor.
‘[Semyon] “I went through the whole war and I will always remember one of those heroes who defended Ukraine from the Nazis,” he wrote on May 9, Ukraine’s official Victory Day over Nazism.
“It is a shame that we so rarely mention our veterans, our grandparents. We must be grateful to them every day.
“Thanks for the fact that the inhuman ideology of Nazism is forever a thing of the past. Thanks to those who fought against Nazism – and won.
“We are just grateful to everyone for the opportunity to be born and live.”
Massacres in Babin Yar
Babin Yar is a gorge discovered in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, and also the site of massacres committed by Nazi Germany during World War II.
Approximately 33,771 Jews were killed in the first and largest massacre more than 80 years ago, on September 29-30, 1941.
This happened after the Nazis decided to kill all Jews in Kyiv and during Germany’s campaign against the Soviet Union.
Until that date, it was considered the largest mass murder during the Holocaust by Nazi Germany until the massacre of more than 50,000 people in Odessa a month later in October 1941.
In addition to the thousands of Jewish victims, Soviet prisoners of war, communists, Ukrainian nationalists and Roma were slaughtered on the site.
It is estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 people were killed during the German occupation of Babin Yar.
Photographs from 1941 show that Soviet soldiers were forced by the Nazis to cover the bodies in the mass grave on October 1, while later in 1944 efforts were made to hide him.
Russia has been accused of being “barbaric” over the bombing of the Babin Yar Holocaust Memorial in Kyiv on the site of one of the largest single massacres of Jews during the Holocaust (file image)
Horrific testimonies later revealed that the victims of the September 29 and 30 massacres were ordered to go to the scene by 8 am, believing they would be resettled.
Under threat of beatings, they were ordered to undress and were forced to enter the gorge where they were killed.
One witness said some were killed before they even knew what was happening, while others were forced to lie on top of victims who had already been shot before being killed themselves.
After the war, several SS commanders who organized the massacres were put on trial. Paul Blobel, commander of the SS unit that is the massacre, was sentenced to death during the Nuremberg Trials. He was hanged on June 7, 1951.
Others were sentenced in Soviet tribunals and sentenced to death.
Due to Soviet policy, efforts to commemorate the Jews were specifically hampered. Only after the collapse of the Soviet Union were memorials built on the site.
The memorial is a place of worship for many Jews.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a memorial service for the victims of Babi Yar, one of the largest single massacres of Jews during the Nazi Holocaust, in Kyiv, Ukraine, September 29, 2021.