"Evil that is not stopped in time grows stronger." With these words, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko commemorated the victims of Babyn Yar mass shootings committed by Nazi soldiers during the occupation, killing 100,000 people.
On 29 September, Ukraine marks the 84th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy. In 1941, men, women, and children were forced to gather under the pretext of "relocation" and then executed. Victims were ordered to undress and line up in a "corridor" about three meters wide, formed by German soldiers on either side. They were driven into the ravine, where they were shot or killed with other weapons.
Babyn Yar 84 years later: remembering mass executions and the Holocaust
Nazi occupiers in Kyiv executed nearly 34,000 Jews, marking the beginning of the largest mass killings of World War II. Overall, between 1941 and 1943, about 100,000 people were murdered at Babyn Yar, including Jews, Roma, Karaims, Soviet prisoners of war, and members of the Ukrainian resistance.
Bodies fell and piled up in the ravine, often on top of one another, creating layers of corpses, as the shootings were carried out en masse and without interruption.
“The past reminds us: evil that is not stopped in time grows stronger, destroying everything in its path,” noted Vitali Klitschko.
He emphasized that Ukraine today is again fighting for life, dignity, and peace for all of Europe, resisting the renewed terror of Russian occupiers.
Historical lessons for Europe
“Even during wartime, we never forget the tragedy of Babyn Yar, the tragedy of the Holocaust. Babyn Yar is an example of why the world today cannot stand aside, silently observing Russia’s aggression," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed.
Kremlin media portrays Ukraine as overrun by “Nazis"
Meanwhile, Russian propaganda actively pushes the narrative that Kyiv and Ukraine as a whole are dominated by Nazis, using this as a pretext for its aggression.
This narrative emerged even before 2014 and intensified significantly with the start of Russia’s all-out war, when President Vladimir Putin declared the so-called “denazification” as a goal.
However, during the war, Russia killed 14,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the UN and nearly 100,000 in Mariupol, as per different estimates.
