Russia bombards a Kyiv TV tower and the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site
Apparent Russian strikes have hit the main television and radio tower in Kyiv, as well as a memorial to the site where Nazis killed thousands of Jews during World War II. Ukraine's foreign ministry confirmed the attack in a tweet, in which it equated Russia with barbarism.
The State Emergency Service said five people were killed and another five injured in the attack on the Kyiv TV tower, according to Interfax. Citing the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it also reported that the broadcaster's control room was hit and TV channels will not work "for some time."
The ministry said backup broadcasting of some channels will be switched on in the near future, and the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection is asking Kyiv residents to rely on regional TV channels until then.
Video verified by the New York Times shows an object hitting the tower, with another two explosions igniting in the same area and setting off billowing clouds of smoke. Similar videos, not yet verified by NPR, have been posted on social media.
The tower — which appears to still be standing — is located near the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, where Nazis killed nearly 34,000 Jews over a 36-hour period in September 1941. The center says Nazis shot between 70,000 and 100,000 people at Babyn Yar, including nearly all of Kyiv's Jewish population, between 1941 and 1943.
It had issued a statement earlier Tuesday strongly condemning Russia's actions, characterizing them as a crime against humanity and calling Russia "the biggest instigator and initiator of war in the 21st century."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the Russian strikes in a tweet in which he confirmed five people had been killed, but did not specify at which location.
"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?" he wrote. "History repeating..."
Other Ukrainian officials were quick to condemn the attack on social media: [Copyright 2022 NPR]
