Not all the victims of Babyn Yar were Jews, but all Jews were victims, - Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich

"Not all the victims were Jews, but all the Jews were victims," he was quoted as saying.

According to Yaakov Dov Bleich, the Soviet government did not want to differentiate Jews, because it did not even allow them to be victims.

"On all the monuments that were built in Soviet times, it was not written that they were Jews, but that they were a Soviet citizen. It was part of their propaganda that the Jews did not fight, did not suffer," the Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine explained.

2021 marks the 80th anniversary of the mass shootings during the German occupation of Kyiv during World War II. On September 29, Ukraine honored the memory of the victims of Babyn Yar. In 1941, the Nazis shot more than 33 thousand Kyivans in this tract, most of them were Jews. In total, more than 120 thousand people – men, women and children – died in Babyn Yar. This tragedy has become a global symbol of the Holocaust.

From September 27 to October 7, a number of events dedicated to the tragedy are being held in Kyiv. In particular, exhibitions, book presentations and a national memory lesson in Ukrainian schools.