Authorities in Ukraine reported yesterday that at least 15 civilians were killed in a Russian bombing of residential buildings in a village in the eastern province of Donetsk, with the Russian military continuing extensive shelling in an attempt to complete the takeover of the Donbass region.
The Ukrainians accused Russian forces of shelling large areas of Donetsk on Saturday afternoon, including in the main cities of Sloviansk, Kramtorsk and Drozhkivka. In the village of Chasib Yar, a five-story apartment building collapsed after a rocket hit around 9 p.m., and the roof of a nearby building was hit.
Rescuers worked through the night in the rubble of a building in Chasib Yar, killing at least 15 people and rescuing five others, but feared for the lives of about 20 missing people, some of whom were contacted. Pablo Kirilenko, the governor of the province, accused the Russians of shelling through the rocket launcher Rabbi Kenny Oregon. On the other hand, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the attack was aimed at a hangar which stored Hobitzer cannons that came from the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin over the weekend managed to light in a few sentences red lights for those who expected the relatively quick end of the war in Ukraine and the restriction of Russia’s goals to Donbas only. “We have heard that they want to defeat us on the battlefield, let them try,” Putin said, adding: “We have heard many times that the West wants to fight us to the last Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but things seem to be moving in that direction. “We do not oppose peace talks, but those who refuse should know that it will be increasingly difficult to negotiate with them. The sanctions that the West is imposing on Russia in the meantime are punishing the West itself.”
Meanwhile, a storm arose among the Jewish communities in Europe after the de facto ouster of Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the Chief Rabbi of Moscow, who served in the post for 33 years. Although the tenure of Goldschmidt, a native of Switzerland, was recently extended by the community council, the extension was not ultimately approved – according to community sources “for security reasons”, and apparently due to pressure from the Putin administration. It seems that no successor will be appointed at this stage.
Goldschmidt, who also serves as president of the European Rabbinical Conference, was forced to leave Moscow two weeks after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, after refusing to express public support for it. In a statement issued a few days ago, he wrote, among other things: “When the terrible war of the last months in Ukraine began, I could no longer see so much human suffering and remain silent in inaction. My wife and I traveled to Eastern Europe to help refugees, “As time went on, and even though I was re-elected chief rabbi last month, I realized that staying in office would endanger the future of the Jewish community in Moscow.” Russia’s chief rabbi Berl Lazar, who belongs to the Chabad community, remains in office. Lazar is considered close to President Putin, although he expressed “concern” when the war broke out.