'History repeating': Kyiv's Babyn Yar bombed 81 years after massacre of Jews during World War II

Russia-Ukraine War News: The Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial in Ukraine's Kyiv was bombed on Tuesday. 81 years ago, during World War II, more than 30,000 Jews were massacred at the same site.

An apparent Russian airstrike hit Kyiv’s main television tower in the heart of the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday, knocking out some state broadcasting but leaving the structure intact. Five people died in the attack.

The attack on the television tower also struck the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian authorities. A spokesperson for the memorial said a security team was dispatched to the site to assess the damage.

The Babyn Yar memorial rests on a mass grave of more than 33,000 Jews who were slaughtered there in 1941 when the city was under Nazi occupation. The massacre was carried out by German troops along with local collaborators.

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Responding to the attack on Tuesday, Ukraine President Zelenskyy tweeted, "To the world: 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."

WHAT HAPPENED AT BABYN YAR DURING WORLD WAR 2?

At the Babyn Yar ravine just outside Kyiv, 33,771 civilians were massacred on September 29 and 30 in 1941.

On September 19, 1941, about three months after the invasion of the Soviet Union, Nazi troops marched into Kyiv, the capital of Soviet Ukraine.

A few days later, resistance fighters blew up several buildings in the city centre where the occupiers had taken up residence. The Nazis used this as a pretext to launch a massacre. Leaflets were distributed throughout the city of over a million inhabitants, calling on Jews to appear at an intersection on the outskirts of Kiev at 8 am on September 29, 1941. They were to bring money and warm clothing. Anyone who refused to come would be shot.

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The people were ordered to take off their clothes. Then they were driven to the edge of the ravine and, in assembly line fashion, shot. Loud music and a plane circling overhead were supposed to drown out the screams and shots.

Over two days, more than 33,000 people were executed there by Nazi killing squads in one of the worst mass murders of Jews during the Holocaust of World War II.

The massacre was led by paramilitary officer Paul Blobel, who was also involved in other similar operations in Ukraine. He was convicted and executed in one of the Nuremberg trials. The local 'auxiliary police' also participated in the killing of Jews.