The attack was one of the deadliest since hostilities began with 122 missiles and 36 suicide drones launched by the Russian military.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The Jewish community of Kharkiv, Ukraine was shaken by the loss of 30-year-old Artem Reznik this weekend amid one of the most devastating missile attacks since the beginning of the war with Russia, Ynet reported.

Chabad emissary in Kharkiv Rabbi Moshe Moskowitz expressed grief over the loss, “This is a very painful tragedy, we are all mourning the disaster.”

Artem Reznik’s funeral was scheduled to take place on Monday.

The attack that killed Artem Reznik was one of the deadliest since hostilities began with 122 missiles and 36 suicide drones launched by the Russian military.

However, the Jewish community has resolved to carry on and will go ahead with three circumcision ceremonies this week for Jewish men aged 15, 40 and 75.

Rabbi Moskowitz said, “Now these brit milah will have a different meaning when we say ‘In your blood, my life.”

Rabbi Moskowitz isn’t alone in having to sustain a Jewish community under fire.

“The rabbis and emissaries of Chabad have been continuously managing the communities in emergency mode for almost two years and simply safeguarding the communities. Their dedication is indescribable,” according to Jewish Relief Network Ukraine (JRNU), the largest Jewish network in the country.

Chief rabbi of Zaporizhzhya and Chabad emissary Rabbi Nachum Ehrentreu described the impact of missile strikes on his community.

“By God’s mercy, our community is fine. It was an extremely significant attack. Missiles struck our facility, resulting in casualties and injuries. There was also an attempt to target the power infrastructure.”

The community heard rocket explosions for hours and took shelter until the danger subsided.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Wolf of Kherson discussed the daily tension in the city over the past two years.

“Every single day in our city is filled with unrest. What sets us apart is that we don’t have any warning alarms here. The only alarm we hear is the sound of the missile.”

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Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky compared the destruction of Bakhmut to Hiroshima, saying “there was nothing left” and that “for today, Bakhmut is only in our hearts.” He later clarified that Russian claims that it had taken control of the city were untrue.

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The Americans are the “real heirs of the Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels,” Dmitry Medvedev charged.

By World Israel News Staff

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev threatened the U.S. with hypersonic cruise missiles after the Biden administration expressed solidarity with Russians who are opposed to the war.

Medvedev, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also compared the U.S.’ policies to that of Nazis.

“The main gift of the New Year was the arsenal of Zircon missiles that went yesterday to the shores of NATO countries,” said Medvedev, who currently serves as Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council.

Putin on Wednesday sent a frigate armed with the country’s latest Zircon hypersonic missile, which are nuclear warhead-capable, on a trans-ocean cruise in a show of force.

“1000 km range with hypersonic Mach 9 and the ability to use any payload with a guarantee overcome any missile defense,” threatened Medvedev. “Let it [Gorshkov] stand somewhere 100 miles from the coast, closer to the Potomac River.”

Russia has boasted that the Zircon missile can evade any Western air defenses by flying at an astounding 7,000 miles per hour, according to The Associated Press.

Medvedev’s comments come in response to a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in which it appealed to Russian citizens to stand firm against their government.

“Throughout history, our countries have been united by a common culture and our achievements,” said the embassy. “We believe that what is happening is not worthy of you, and we stand in solidarity with each of you who strive to create a more peaceful future.”

Medvedev in turn said the U.S. was “exterminating thousands of people by proxy” by arming Ukraine.

“This is extreme cynicism in the best traditions of the Nazis,” said Medvedev, saying they were the “real heirs of the Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.”

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“They feel a need to take part in this historical moment and help people, and make Ukraine a better place with a smile on their faces.” 

By Associated Press

In a village in northern Ukraine that was devastated by Russian occupation only months ago, a techno party is in full swing.

In a bombed-out building, more than 200 young people have found a novel way to help rebuild their country.

The daytime “clean-up rave” in Yahidne was organized by young Ukrainians who have been using dance parties as a way to contribute to recovery efforts in the country’s north, which has suffered major damage from Russian bombardment.

Shovels in hand, the volunteers tackle the remnants of a village cultural center that was destroyed in March by a Russian rocket strike, tossing piles of debris onto a tractor’s loader.

A DJ, his turntables mounted on a stack of ammunition boxes, spins techno and house dance music as the volunteers work. Some even take a break from their labor to dance.

“Volunteering is my lifestyle now,” said Tania Burianova, an organizer with the Repair Together initiative. “I like electronic music and I used to party. But now it’s wartime and we want to help, and we’re doing it with music.”

Ukraine’s vibrant club scene was brought to an abrupt halt with the Russian invasion on Feb. 24.

Now, with a nighttime curfew in effect in Kyiv, the capital, and the threat of more Russian rocket attacks ever present, adherents of Ukraine’s party culture have sought to combine the fun and freedom of a music festival with rebuilding the country they love.

Burianova said the clean-up raves bring together those who had lost their nightclub community during the war, helping them regain a sense of normalcy and fun while contributing to the recovery of damaged towns.

“We miss (parties) and we want to come back to normal life, but our normal life now is volunteering,” Burianova, 26, told The Associated Press.

The damaged cultural center sits on the edge of Yahidne, where nearly all of the just over 300 people in the village were confined to a basement for weeks by Russian forces during the occupation of the northern Chernihiv province.

Local resident Nina, 68, said she spent those awful weeks in the basement before the Russian troops withdrew, and that 11 people died there as a result of the poor conditions. She was grateful to see young people coming together to help the village recover.

“They already repaired our windows, doors and entrances,” Nina said of the volunteers. “We couldn’t do it ourselves with our salaries or pensions. I’m thankful that they helped us.”

Most of the volunteers were in their 20s and 30s and came from Kyiv, about two hours’ drive away. But others have come from the western city of Lviv and also nearby Chernihiv, while some foreign volunteers arrived from Portugal, the United States, Germany and elsewhere.

The clean-up at the cultural center was the group’s eighth project so far, and they have already helped repair 15 damaged homes in the village.

They plan to expand and hold a building camp event in the nearby town of Lukashivka, where they will construct 12 houses for people whose homes have been destroyed, Burianova said.

After finishing a set, DJ Oleksandr Buchinskiy said all of the volunteers were connected by a sense of optimism and responsibility.

“These are all young people that still have a passion for life, but they feel pain and are very sad and angry because of the war,” Buchinskiy said. “But they feel a need to take part in this historical moment, and help people, and make Ukraine a better place with a smile on their faces.”

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Explosions rocked Kyiv on Sunday as the Russia launched the first missile salvos on Ukraine’s capital in weeks.

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NASAMS is the same system used by the U.S. to protect the sensitive airspace around the White House and U.S. Capitol.

By Associated Press

The Group of Seven economic powers are set to commit themselves to supporting Ukraine in the long haul, with the U.S. preparing to announce the purchase of an advanced surface-to-air missile system for Kyiv, as leaders meet in the German Alps and confer by video link with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The meeting comes amid the backdrop of renewed Russian missile strikes on Kyiv for the first time in weeks.

President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin “has been counting on, from the beginning, that somehow NATO and the G-7 would splinter, but we haven’t and we’re not going to.” Britain’s Boris Johnson warned the leaders not to give in to “fatigue.”

On Monday, they have the opportunity to demonstrate that unity to Zelensky and reaffirm their commitment to supporting Kyiv financially and otherwise.

Biden is set to announce that the U.S. is providing an advanced surface-to-air missile system to Ukraine, as well as additional artillery support, according to a person familiar with the matter, in the latest assistance meant to help the country defend against Russia’s bloody invasion.

The U.S. is purchasing NASAMS, a Norwegian-developed anti-aircraft system, to provide medium- to long-range defense, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. NASAMS is the same system used by the U.S. to protect the sensitive airspace around the White House and U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Additional aid includes more ammunition for Ukrainian artillery, as well as counter-battery radars, to support its efforts against the Russian assault in the Donbas, the person said.

Biden hopes to use his trip to Europe to proclaim the unity of the coalition pressing to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine as much as he is urging allies to do even more — seeking to counter doubts about its endurance as the war grinds into its fifth month.

The G-7 already is committed to help finance Ukraine’s immediate needs. Finance ministers from the group last month agreed to provide $19.8 billion in economic aid to help Kyiv keep basic services functioning and prevent tight finances from hindering its defense against Russian forces.

Russian strikes on Kyiv

Russia shattered weeks of relative calm in the Ukrainian capital with long-range missiles fired toward Kyiv early Sunday, an apparent Kremlin show-of-force.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the missiles hit at least two residential buildings, and President Volodymr Zelenskyy said a 37-year-old man was killed and his 7-year-old daughter and wife injured. Associated Press journalists saw emergency workers battling flames and rescuing civilians.

The strikes also damaged a nearby kindergarten, where a crater pocked the courtyard. U.S. President Joe Biden called the attacks “barbarism” after he arrived in Germany for a Group of Seven summit.

Later Sunday, a local official reported a second death, telling the Unian news agency that a railroad worker was killed and several others were injured in the attacks while servicing rail infrastructure.

Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said the first air-launched weapons successfully to target the capital since June 5 were Kh-101 cruise missiles fired from warplanes over the Caspian Sea, more than 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) away.

A Ukrainian parliament member, Oleksiy Goncharenko, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that preliminary information indicated that Russia launched 14 missiles toward the capital region and Kyiv itself.

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A video posted online Sunday by Ukrainian forces showed elderly women and mothers with small children climbing over a steep pile of rubble from the sprawling Azovstal steel plant and eventually boarding a bus.

By Associated Press

The first group of civilians trapped for weeks inside a steel plant in Mariupol under Russian siege was expected to reach a Ukrainian-controlled city on Monday, as a new attempt was launched to allow people sheltering elsewhere in the city to leave.

A video posted online Sunday by Ukrainian forces showed elderly women and mothers with small children climbing over a steep pile of rubble from the sprawling Azovstal steel plant and eventually boarding a bus.

The evacuation, if successful, would represent rare progress in easing the human cost of the almost 10-week war, which has caused particular suffering in Mariupol.

Previous attempts to open safe corridors out of the port city on the Sea of Azov and other places have broken down. People fleeing Russian-occupied areas in the past have said their vehicles were fired on, and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Russian forces of shelling agreed-upon evacuation routes.

At least some of the people evacuated from the plant were apparently taken to a village controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, though Russian state media reported they would be allowed to continue on to Ukrainian-held territory if they wanted to.

In the past, Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow’s troops of forcibly relocating civilians from areas they have captured to Russia; Moscow has said the people wanted to go to Russia.

More than 100 civilians were expected to arrive in Zaporizhzhia on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday.

“Today, for the first time in all the days of the war, this vitally needed green corridor has started working,” Zelensky said in a pre-recorded address published on his Telegram messaging channel.

‘We could see the rockets flying’

While official evacuations have often faltered, many people have managed to flee Mariupol under their own steam. Anastasiia Dembytska took advantage of the brief cease-fire around the evacuation of civilians from the steel plant to leave with her daughter, nephew and dog.

She told The Associated Press she could see the steel plant from her window, when she dared to look out.

“We could see the rockets flying” and clouds of smoke over the plant, she said.

She said she had to navigate many checkpoints on the journey to Zaporizhzhia and waited 18 hours near the city before being allowed to pass.

Like many Mariupol residents, Dembytska and her family survived by cooking on a makeshift stove and drinking well water under near-constant bombardment.

“I was scared, then I got used to it,” her 14-year-old daughter Vladyslava said.

A defender of the steel plant said Russian forces resumed shelling the plant Sunday as soon as the civilians were evacuated.

Denys Shlega, commander of the 12th Operational Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard, said in a televised interview Sunday night that several hundred civilians are still trapped alongside nearly 500 wounded soldiers and “numerous” dead bodies.

“Several dozen small children are still in the bunkers underneath the plant,” Shlega said.

‘They are worse than the Germans’

As many as 100,000 people may still be in Mariupol, including an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters beneath the sprawling, Soviet-era steel plant — the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians.

A siege of Mariupol since the early days of the war has trapped civilians with scarce access to food, water, medicine and electricity. A Russian airstrike hit a maternity hospital early in the conflict, and hundreds of people were reported killed when a theater was bombed.

The city, which had a pre-war population of more than 400,000, is a key Russian target because its capture would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and free up troops for fighting elsewhere in the Donbas, now Russia’s main focus.

A Ukrainian officer at the steel plant urged groups like the UN and the Red Cross to also ensure the evacuation of wounded fighters at the plant, though he acknowledged that reaching some of the injured is difficult.

“There’s rubble. We have no special equipment. It’s hard for soldiers to pick up slabs weighing tons only with their arms,” Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, told the AP in an interview. “We hear voices of people who are still alive” inside shattered buildings.

UN humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu said civilians arriving in Zaporizhzhia, about 140 miles (230 kilometers) northwest of Mariupol, would get immediate support, including psychological services. A Doctors Without Borders team was waiting for the UN convoy at a reception center for displaced people in the city.

In his nightly address Sunday, Zelensky accused Moscow of waging “a war of extermination,” saying Russian shelling had hit food, grain and fertilizer warehouses, and residential neighborhoods in the city of Kharkiv, in the Donbas and other regions.

More than 350,000 people have been evacuated from combat zones thanks to humanitarian corridors pre-agreed with Moscow, he said, adding the “organization of humanitarian corridors is one of the elements of the negotiation process which is ongoing.”

In Zaporizhzhia, residents ignored air raid sirens to visit cemeteries on Sunday, the Orthodox Christian day of the dead.

“If our dead could rise and see this, they would say, ‘It’s not possible, they’re worse than the Germans,’” Hennadiy Bondarenko, 61, said while marking the day with his family at a picnic table among the graves. “All our dead would join the fighting, including the Cossacks.”

Ukraine still needs massive support

Meanwhile, Russian forces embarked on a major military operation to seize the Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, after failing to capture Kyiv.

A full picture of the battle unfolding in eastern Ukraine is hard to capture. The fighting makes it dangerous for reporters to move around, and both sides have introduced tight restrictions on reporting from the combat zone.

Western officials say Russia is advancing slowly in its eastern offensive and has captured some villages, but is inflicting heavy civilian casualties through indiscriminate bombing. Ukrainian forces are fighting their offensive village-by-village while civilians flee airstrikes and artillery shelling.

The British Defense Ministry said in a daily briefing Monday that it believes more than a quarter of all the fighting units Russia has deployed in Ukraine are now “combat ineffective” — unable to fight because of loss of troops or equipment.

The British military believes Russia committed over 120 so-called “battalion tactical groups” into the war since February, which represents 65% of all of Moscow’s combat strength.

Ukraine’s military claimed Monday to have destroyed two small Russian patrol boats in the Black Sea. Drone footage posted online showed what the Ukrainians described as two Russian Raptor boats exploding after being struck by missiles.

The AP could not immediately independently confirm the strikes.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance flowed into Ukraine during the war, but Russia’s vast armories mean Ukraine still needs massive support. Zelensky has appealed to the West for more weapons, and tougher economic sanctions on Russia.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other U.S. lawmakers visited Zelensky on Saturday to show American support.

European Union energy ministers were meeting Monday to discuss a new set of sanctions, which could include restrictions on Russian oil — though Russia-dependent members of the 27-nation bloc including Hungary and Slovakia are wary of taking tough action.

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Report reveals Israeli-made Barak 8 missile successfully downed a Russian ballistic missile over Azerbaijan.

By World Israel News Staff

Azerbaijan’s armed forces successfully shot down a Russian ballistic missile last fall in what appears to be the first documented evidence of an Israeli air defense missile being used against that kind of Russian military hardware, Channel 20 News reported Tuesday.

During the latest round of fighting last fall between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Armenians launched at least one Russian Iskander short-range ballistic missile that was intercepted as it headed towards the Azerbaijan capital city of Baku, the report said.

The Iskander missile, which can carry up to 1,500 pounds of high explosives, was stopped by a Barak-8 (“lightning”) air-defense missile. The Barak-8, a joint development of Israel and India, is designed to be used against a variety of platforms, from anti-ship missiles to helicopters and planes. The missile is in use on Israel’s Saar 5 warships.

Azerbaijan has close ties with Israel and in 2018 acquired 12 Barak-8 launchers with 75 surface-to-air missiles for them.

Despite Azerbaijan’s controversial record on freedoms and human rights, Israel maintains close ties with the Asian nation that considers itself an ally to both neighboring Iran and Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Baku in 2016.

Surmising why Armenia, outmatched on the battlefield, used the Russian missile, Can Kasapoglu, director of Defense Research at the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies in Istanbul, told Middle East Eye that it may have “tried to target Baku with an Iskander as a last resort to put pressure on Azerbaijan for a ceasefire.”

“The use of Iskander matches with Armenia’s intra-war deterrence efforts as they were overwhelmed by Azerbaijani technological superiority in the battleground,” Kasapoglu said.

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Russia released a video purportedly showing a successful launch of the new hypersonic “Kinzhal” missile, which President Vladimir Putin called “an ideal weapon.”

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An Israeli spy satellite reportedly discovered advanced Russian mobile ballistic missiles stored in Syria.

Israel’s “Eros B” satellite has taken high-definition photos of Russian “Iskander” missiles being transported on trucks inside an army base in Latakia, western Syria, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

Until now, the Russians have kept their missiles out of sight in secret Syrian locations. When strong rainstorms hit the region, however, they were forced to transfer them to different locations, using trucks.

The Eros B satellite was able to capture images of the missiles during these transfers.

By: World Israel News Staff

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