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Ukraine: Russia damaged Holocaust memorial, ‘repeating Nazi crimes’

Ukraine’s embassy in Israel slams damage to Holocaust memorial allegedly caused by Russia, says Putin is repeating “Nazi crimes.”

By World Israel News Staff

For the second time in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv said that the Russian military damaged a Holocaust memorial in Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian government officials, a large monument at the Drobytsky Yar memorial, near Kharkiv, was damaged by Russian shelling.

Images posted on social media appeared to show damage to a giant Menorah at the site.

Ukraine’s embassy in Israel reposted the photo on Twitter, along with a statement accusing Russia of Nazism.

“Another memorial of the Holocaust victims was destroyed by Russian barbarians in Ukraine,” the Embassy wrote.

“This time – Drobytskyi Yar, near Kharkiv where 15, 000 jews were executed by Nazis during the WW2. No one should keep silent, when Russian war criminals killing civilians, kids, pregnant women, shelling hospitals, memorials….Russians are repeating the Nazis crimes, again and again and again!”

Earlier in March, Ukrainian officials claimed that Russia had destroyed the memorial at Babyn Yar, the site where some 33,000 Jews were murdered by Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators.

That claim was later found to be false, after an Israeli journalist in Ukraine went to the memorial and found that it was undamaged.

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Kyiv did not apologize or provide an explanation for the false allegation.

Throughout the conflict, Ukraine has repeatedly compared the Russian invasion to the Nazi genocide of Jews in Europe.

Last week, several Israeli lawmakers expressed that they were deeply offended by the equivocation after an impassioned speech by Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky to the Knesset fell flat.

In the speech, Zelensky slammed Israel for toeing the diplomatic line and maintaining good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv, saying that the strategy was similar to European appeasement of Hitler during World War II.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has also invoked Nazism during the conflict, claiming that the reason for the invasion was to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.

The Kremlin refuses to use the terms “invasion” or “war” to refer to the fighting, instead calling it a “special military operation.”