Israeli president in Ukraine to honor Holocaust victims

Israel’s president is in Ukraine to honor the victims of the Babi Yar massacre eight decades after one of the most infamous Nazi mass slaughters of World War II

Ukraine Israel (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office)

Israel's president arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday to honor the victims of the Babi Yar massacre eight decades after one of the most infamous Nazi mass slaughters of World War II.

Nearly 34,000 Jews were killed within 48 hours in Babi Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital, when Kyiv was under Nazi occupation in 1941. SS troops carried out the massacre with local collaborators.

“It is imperative to keep speaking about this horrific event and learn its lessons,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said before arriving for the first state visit of his presidency.

“The only way to build a present and future in which atrocities and crimes against humanity can find no foothold is to study the past, including the Holocaust and persecution of the Jewish people,” Herzog said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after meeting with Herzog, “The memory of these victims is sacred for us, for each Ukrainian.”

Zelenskyy, Herzog and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier are set to attend a ceremony Wednesday to remember the victims of the massacre.

The three are also scheduled to inaugurate a memorial center, still under construction, dedicated to the stories of Eastern European Jews who were killed and buried in mass graves during the Holocaust. Of the 2.5 million Jews, 1.5 million died in Ukraine alone,