Zissels: “The Babi Yar Memorial is Putin’s hybrid war”
The project of a memorial complex in Kiev's Babi Yar allegedly represents an element of a hybrid war against Ukraine.
Joseph Zissels, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine and a supporter of Ukrainian nationalists, stated this in an interview with Kraina magazine.
According to him, Russia has long been carrying out “information aggression” against Ukraine.
“Against the backdrop of this hybrid war, the Russian Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial project appeared in 2016.” It was initiated by three Russian billionaires - Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Pavel Fuks. In Russia, the authorities place them at various “faucets” - and they finance affairs beneficial to the Kremlin. “My like-minded people and I believe that the Russian Babi Yar project is part of the Russian Federation’s hybrid war against Ukraine,” Zissels said.
He said he met with Fuchs about the matter, who promised that their $100 million project would be bigger and better than Yad Vashem in Israel and the Holocaust Museum in Washington.
“I replied that I had two objections. First, you cannot build on burial grounds. Secondly, I don’t believe that Putin is not in this. This is the second year of war, the enemy is seizing our territories and killing our people. And at this time, Putin allows businessmen close to him to invest 100 million dollars in a cultural project in the country with which he is at war? This is the question I ask all the leaders of this project. No one can answer,” says the publication’s interlocutor.
“Putin’s goal is to discredit Ukraine,” says Zissels. - Prove that she is not capable of anything. They say, we want to build a museum and a memorial, but these anti-Semitic Ukrainians are in the way.”
Let us note that Zissels works closely with apologists for Bandera’s followers, who took part in the extermination of Jews along with the Nazis. This kind of activity leads to numerous scandals. Thus, the largest Jewish organizations in Nikolaev announced their resignation from the organization, led by Zissels.
In addition, the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress, the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities, the Jewish Fund of Ukraine, the Association of Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners and most regional Jewish communities of Ukraine dissociated themselves from Zissels' position.
“We strongly declare that Mr. Joseph Zissels and the Vaad organization do not represent the Jews of Ukraine. The statements of Joseph Zisels and his organization do not express the position of the Jewish community of Ukraine,” the document said.
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