Russian airstrike damages building at Babyn Yar where museum marking Holocaust in eastern Europe was planned

The building of the Avangard sports complex in Babyn Yar damaged by a Russian missile attack is the place where the Holocaust Museum in Ukraine and Eastern Europe was planned. Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center is managing the project as part of a public-private partnership, according to the Center's press release.

"Some 10 meters from the Avangard building where the projectile fell, in the building of the former office of the Lukianivka Jewish cemetery, was where the museum was planned to be. The project was implemented by the Holocaust Memorial Center together with the state. OFFPOLINN, an international architectural firm based in New York and Madrid has joined the project," the Center said.

Guards at the Memorial detained a target spotter during the shelling of the site and handed him over to Ukraine's Security Service (SBU). In addition, on March 4, the guards of the Memorial detained another target spotter with artillery beacons near the "Mirror Field" installation.

As indicated in the report, there was a Jewish cemetery near the Avangard complex before the start of World War II. The missile attack that Russia launched on the Kyiv TV tower and a neighboring building extended to the former military cemetery. Researchers of the Center for Spatial Technologies also said that the places of destruction are very close – at a distance of 20-30 meters to the places where the Nazi invaders shot Jews, Roma and representatives of other nationalities.

"Since the shootings at Babyn Yar lasted from 1941 to 1943, and from 70,000 to 100,000 were killed there in different places, we can consider the entire area as the territory of the Holocaust, which should be hallowed ground," Director of the Center for Spatial Technologies Maksym Rokhmaniyko said.

Installations on the tract of near the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, such as the symbolic synagogue "Place for Reflection," the Crystal Wailing Wall of conceptual artist Marina Abramovic, the audiovisual installation "Mirror Field," several objects included in the "Look into the Past" installation and a monument to the Kurenevska Tragedy, were not damaged.