to something, and that is a russian missile hitting babin yar holocaust memorial site in kyiv, killing at least five people. this is a site where nearly 34,000 jews were killed within 48 hours during world war ii. president zelenskyy tweeting this, and i quote, what is the point of saying never again for 80 years if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of babin yar? history repeating. look, it s chilling. and this is after putin called the ukrainian government neo-nazis. is history repeating itself? well, i do this is a grotesque pretext for war, i think. it s important for people to understand, putin has literally called the first and so far only jewish president of ukraine a nazi and used that as a pretext for launching the war. and then to have an attack like this today on one of the horrible sacred sites of the
unprovoked war. sara sidner, poland. now ukraine s president says air strikes in kyiv have hit a site honoring victims of the holocaust. the babin yar holocaust memorial is near a tv tower that was damaged on tuesday. at least five people reportedly killed in that strike. joining me now for more in jerusalem, some really strong reactions out of israel to this. what are you hearing? well, michael, i just want to sketch out what babin yar is. it s the site of one of the worst atrocities of the holocaust where in 1941, over the course of just about two days, more than 30,000 jews were murdered, their bodies piled in mass graves. it is a large complex with several memorials spread out across the site. according to people, yesterday complex built in the grounds of the old jewish cemetery, they re still trying to assess the
was made. michael, it was actually the second round of such calls with both ukrainian and russian leaders in less than a week. as you noted last friday, the ukrainian president asked the israeli prime minister to potentially host talks, to be the mediator of both sides in jerusalem. that s because ukrainians no longer peel as belarus where these negotiations often take place is a fair place because belarus is such a close ally of russia. we know that yesterday the first call was with volodymyr zelenskyy. this actually game after zelenskyy put out a statement in hebrew calling all jewish people to support the ukrainians. zelenskyy himself is of course jewish. and according to a senior ukrainian official who spoke with me who was briefed on the call, they said that zelenskyy wanted to emphasize the missile strikes that landed as we heard from alex marquardt in that area of the babin yar memorialed a well as an area call umam which is holy to many orthodox jews. we also know they discus
ukraine. they have not been able to do that. almost a week into this war. but in hitting this tv tower and announcing they would be attacking other communications targets, that may be changing. while russia claims to not be targeting civilians, tuesday s strike killed at least five, the government says. the deadliest in the city of kyiv so far. near the tv tower was a gym, a fire still smoldering. smoke pouring out of the broken windows, the gym equipment covered in dust and debris. at the garage next door, staff stoically cleaned up glass, broken buildings and threw out insulation. all of this just steps from babin yar with its memorial of the massacre of over 30,000 jews in the holocaust. an area that has seen so much suffering for the jewish people hit by a russian leader who claims to be de-nazifying ukraine. this fellow who says he is coming to fight the neo fascists
program. military site in the town was bombed on day one of the russian campaign against ukraine. do you think ukraine has a government of national socialists, of nazis? that is what putin says. no. ukraine, you see ukraine in the last year, they give us to come. they don t make a problem. i have been living here for seven months and it s been amazing, very loving and caring to the jewish people. reporter: putin s called on ukraine s military to rise against the government, which he says is a gang of drug addicts and neo-nazis who settled in kyiv and took the entire ukrainian people hostage. on tuesday, russian bombing of kyiv s radio tower also damaged a holocaust memorial at the babin yar, where more than 30,000 people were murdered in 1941. many tens of thousands were murdered later. now ukraine s jewish president