Zelenskyy honors memory of Babyn Yar victims: “When world turns blind eye, humanity suffers"

This was expressed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he honored the memory of the victims of the Babyn Yar tragedy.

Today, September 29, 2024, marks the 83rd anniversary of this horrific event. According to Zelenskyy, on September 29-30, 1941, the Nazis executed over 30,000 Jews in Kyiv in just two days. They drove entire families - men, women, children, and pregnant women - to the ravine on what has been called the "road of death." The scale of this evil is still hard to comprehend, he added.

Zelenskyy noted that during the Nazi occupation, around 100,000 people were killed at Babyn Yar, including nearly the entire Jewish community of Kyiv and those who tried to save them. Other nationalities were also among the victims.

"Babyn Yar is a terrible symbol of how the most heinous crimes occur when the world chooses to look away, to remain silent, and to be indifferent. When the world turns a blind eye, humanity suffers. Babyn Yar is clear evidence of the atrocities that regimes relying on intimidation and violence are capable of at any time. The world's reaction must be different. This is the lesson we must learn. We must stand up for humanity, life, and justice. We must defend ourselves against evil. Eternal memory to all the victims of the Nazis! Eternal condemnation to all who are guilty of the murders at Babyn Yar!” Zelenskyy emphasized.

• U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink compared Russian attacks on Ukraine with Nazi atrocities at Babyn Yar and called on the world to help Ukraine protect itself from them.