Ukraine says five killed in attack on TV tower near Holocaust memorial site

LVIV (Reuters) -Ukraine accused Russia on Tuesday of carrying out a “barbaric” rocket attack on a Kyiv TV tower that killed five civilians near Babyn Yar, a memorial site to one of the biggest single massacres of Jews during the Nazi Holocaust.

Two rockets struck the tower, killing five people who were walking nearby, said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, urging residents to stay off the streets due to the threat of attack. Video shared online by the city’s emergency services showed first responders walking past downed power lines to put out fires in the rubble of buildings at the base of the tower, which stands opposite Babyn Yar.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: “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 Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating…” The attack came on the sixth day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Russia warned Kyiv residents to flee their homes, intensifying bombardment of Ukrainian urban areas in a shift of tactics after the Russian assault stalled.

“On September 29-30, 1941, Nazis killed over 33 thousand Jews here (in Babyn Yar). 80 years later, Russian Nazis strike this same land to exterminate Ukrainians. Evil and barbaric,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour’s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists.

Work is ongoing to restore the TV tower’s full signal and channels are still available via satellite, cable and internet connections, Klitschko, the mayor, said in his online statement.