- Kyiv elders, who say their family members were killed at Babyn Yar, called out Vladimir Putin in a video.
- The video shows the elderly Ukrainians in a bomb shelter as they call for peace in Ukraine.
- They describe how Russia's campaign reminds them of the carnage they faced during the Holocaust.
A video posted to Twitter by the Ukrainian outlet Ukraine World purports to show elderly Ukrainians — who say their relatives were killed in Babyn Yar — in a bomb shelter in Kyiv, calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin and asking for peace.
—UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) March 2, 2022
Babyn Yar is a ravine in Kyiv that was the site of a massacre of more than 33,000 Jews by Nazi forces in 1941. The mass grave continued to be a place for the execution of Jews, Roma, and Soviet prisoners until 1943.
It is now the site of a Holocaust memorial, which was in the vicinity of a strike on a TV tower that was hit in Kyiv.
The video was also posted by retired US Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman and went viral on Twitter. In it elders identified by Vindman as Holocaust survivors — some sitting, others standing in what looks like a bomb shelter — address the camera in turns and then in unison. Insider was not able to independently verify the video but was able to translate it.
"My name is Romanova Valentina Iosifovna. I was born in Ukraine," said Iosifovna, the first woman in the video. "On 22 June, 1941, I met the war under a bombing in Kyiv. My relatives died in Babyn Yar. On 24 February, 2022, I met the war under a bombing in Kyiv once again. Putin, take your troops and get out of Ukraine! We want peace!"
"We want peace!" the group says in unison.
"Auberg Yakovych. Born in 1940 in Kyiv," said Yakovych, the second man in the video. "My relatives died in Babyn Yar in 1941. Now I am sitting in a bomb shelter, enemy bombs pouring down on me. Putin, get out of Kyiv and from all of Ukraine."
"We want peace!" the group repeats.
"Lukash Tamara Vasylivna. Born in 1939. Before the war, I lived in Kyiv. I'm a Kyiv native," said Vasylivna, the third woman in the video. "In June [1941], the war began, and all my maternal relatives, Jews, were taken to Babyn Yar. And all of them perished there. Today, I am in Kyiv too, but this time, this year, it's a horror of horrors. Putin, die! Leave us alone, you bastard, get the hell out of here! We want peace!"
"We want peace! We want peace!" they exclaim again at the end of the video.
Since last week, Russia has been attacking Ukraine, with sustained ground and air assaults across the country. Russian missile attacks have struck apartments, an orphanage, and a children's hospital, according to the Ukrainian government.
Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and Kyiv, the country's capital, have also experienced heavy bombardment and fighting over the course of the week.
Russia's campaign so far has hit military and civilian targets, which has drawn widespread condemnation from the international community and has united Western nations in unprecedented ways, building pressure on Putin and his allies.
On Wednesday, Kherson, a strategic port city in southern Ukraine along the Black Sea, became the first major city to fall to Russian forces since Russia launched an invasion on February 24.
The city of nearly 300,000 residents was captured by the Russians after nearly a week of fighting with the Ukrainian army.