Ukraine celebrates 80th anniversary of Babi Yar massacre

Ukraine celebrates the 80th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre, one of the most infamous mass killings of WWII.

Babi Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, is where nearly 34,000 Jews were killed in 48 hours in 1941, when the city was under Nazi occupation. The murder was carried out by SS troops with local collaborators.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lays flowers at the monument to the victims of the massacre.

“Babi Yar. Two short words which sound like two short shots, but which carry long and horrible memories for several generations. Because they know and remember that not two shots rang out in Babi Yar, but hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times more, ”says Zelenskyy.

All Ukrainian schools held a lesson dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the tragedy on Wednesday.

“The Nazis of Babi Yar, according to various estimates, executed between 100,000 and 200,000 people. Besides the Jews, they were Ukrainians and Roma, prisoners of war and patients of a psychiatric hospital. … Someone will hear those two scary words and those scary numbers for the first time, ”Zelensky says.

Ukraine has started construction of a Babi Yar memorial complex and a museum at the site of the mass executions and plans to unveil it in 2025-2026.