An Israeli journalist has visited the site of a WWII massacre of Kiev's Jews — and debunked government claims Russia bombed the memorial.
Ben Yishai reported that "the memorial was not harmed and no bomb, missile or artillery shell hit the site itself".
Ynet journalist Ron Ben Yishai reports Babi Yar unscathed after Russian attack
© Photo : ynetnews.com/Ron Ben Yishai/screenshot
The reporter said that three missiles launched by Russian aircraft had hit the communications and television tower complex, about 300 metres (330 yards) from the modern monument and a kilometre (0.6 miles) from the original.
Russia's Ministry of Defence (MoD) issued a public warning to Kiev authorities and residents that it intended to hit the tower and nearby facilities of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the 72nd Centre for Information and Psychological Operations (PSO), who it said was carrying out cyber-attacks against Russia.
A blast is seen in the TV tower in Kiev amid Russia's special operation in Ukraine
© REUTERS / CARLOS BARRIA
"In order to thwart informational attacks against Russia, [Russian forces] will strike technological objects of the SBU and the 72nd Main PSO Center in Kiev. We urge Ukrainian citizens involved by Ukrainian nationalists in provocations against Russia, as well as Kiev residents living near relay stations, to leave their homes", the MoD said.
In one of the most infamous Nazi atrocities of the Second World War, occupying German forces rounded up 34,000 Jews — referred to in public orders by the Ukrainian slur zhid — and marched them to the ravine, located on the outskirts of the city at the time.
There they were massacred on September 29 and 30 1941, and buried in mass graves at the bottom of the valley. The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police and other local collaborators with the Nazi regime assisted in the pogrom. The current government in Kiev nowadays reveres Ukrainian nationalist Nazi collaborators such as Stepan Bandera as heroes.
Over the following months, around 70,000 more residents of the city were arrested, taken to the site, executed and buried in the mass grave. In August and September 1942, the Nazis forced hundreds of Soviet prisoners of war to disinter the bodies of the murdered and burn them on huge funeral pyres. After they were made to build a final pyre for themselves, the soldiers tried to escape, but only around a dozen survived the hail of German machine-gun fire.
In 2015, extremist supporters of the previous year's pro-NATO and European Union coup in Kiev threatened to destroy the Babi Yar monument.