On the 83rd anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid tribute to the victims of mass Nazi executions during the occupation of Kyiv in 1941-1943.The ceremony of commemoration of the executed Jews and other victims of the Nazis, which took place on the territory of the Babyn Yar National Historical and Memorial Reserve, was also attended by Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Mykola Tochytskyi, rabbis and ambassadors.
Representatives of Jewish religious organisations read a memorial prayer. Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked all those present who honoured the memory of the victims.
‘We cannot forget about such terrible times - fascism and Nazism. We must remind everyone of this. Not only in Ukraine, but also to remind everyone abroad that such terrible times cannot come back again,’ he stressed.
The Head of State also noted the significant contribution of the Allied countries and the Jewish people to the victory over Nazism.
During the occupation, the Nazis killed about 100,000 people in Babyn Yar - almost the entire Jewish population of the city. On 29-30 September 1941 alone, they shot over 30,000 people in Kyiv: children, women, and the elderly. The road along which the locals were driven to Babyn Yar was called the ‘Road of Death’.