Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday marked the 83rd anniversary of the Nazi massacre of more than 30,000 Jews at the Babin Yar Pass outside Kiev in 1941.
This was the largest massacre perpetrated by the Germans and their local collaborators on the Jewish population of Ukraine during World War II.
"Babin Yar is a horrifying symbol that shows that the most heinous crimes occur when the world chooses to ignore, remain silent, remain indifferent and lacks the determination to confront evil," Zelensky, who is Jewish himself, wrote on the social network X.
According to official figures, between 100,000 and 150,000 people - including Jews, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and other Ukrainians - were killed at Babin Yar between 1941 and 1942, during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine.
"Babin Yar is a vivid proof of the atrocities that regimes led by leaders who rely on intimidation and violence are capable of," Zelensky added, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in February 2022 ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
“At any given moment they are no different. But the world's response must be different. This is the lesson that the world should have learned," the Ukrainian head of state said.
At the Babin Yar site, there is a monument erected by the Soviet authorities in 1976 to commemorate the "Soviet citizens and prisoners of war" killed during the massacre, without specifically mentioning the Jewish victims. | BGNES
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