Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Thursday visited Kyiv’s suburb of Bucha, which became known for mass killings of civilians under the Russian occupation.
The minister, who arrived in Kyiv Thursday morning to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and President Volodymyr Zelensky, visited the homes of Jewish residents of Bucha.
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Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen (R) visits residents in Bucha, Kyiv region, Ukraine
(Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
They told Cohen about the hardships of war they had endured in the last 12 months since the start of the Russian invasion last February.
“I visited Bucha, one of the suburbs of Kyiv that was badly damaged at the beginning of the war. It is impossible to remain indifferent in the face of the harsh sights and horror stories that I have heard and been exposed to here. Israel condemns any intentional harm to the innocent,” said the minister.
The minister then visited to Babi Yar, one of the most infamous sites of mass killings of Soviet Jews by Nazis. There, Cohen said a prayer together with members of the local Jewish community and laid a wreath at the memorial to the Holocaust victims.
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Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen lays flowers at the memorial in Babi Yar, Ukraine
(Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
"We stand today in this painful place, where more than 30,000 Jews were murdered in a process that preceded the terrible final solution that led to the extinction of more than one and a half million Jews in the territories of the former Soviet Union," he said at the commemoration site.
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Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Babi Yar, Ukraine
(Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
"Standing here today as the foreign minister of the State of Israel and a representative of the government of Israel, I can guarantee that we will do everything to protect our people and provide them with security against those who sow evil against them," Cohen vowed.
Later, air raid sirens blared across the Ukrainian capital as Cohen met with his Ukrainian counterpart Kuleba, sending them and their staff scurrying to a nearby shelter.