Herzog: Russian strike near Babyn Yar memorial ‘epitomizes pain’ of those in the war

President Isaac Herzog said Wednesday that a Russian missile attack that caused damage at the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site in Ukraine symbolizes the suffering of people caught in the conflict caused by Russia’s invasion of the country.

Israel is actively helping to push for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine, Herzog said, kicking off an official visit to Cyprus.

He was received with a state ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, where he arrived at the invitation of President Nicos Anastasiades.

After talks with his Cypriot counterpart, Herzog remarked on the Russian missile attack the day before on a Ukrainian television transmitter in Kyiv that killed five people and also struck the city’s Babyn Yar memorial site. The incident has been denounced by Israeli and Jewish officials.

Herzog said it “epitomizes the huge pain and suffering of people there” and the “terrible tragedy that we’re seeing unfolding in front of our eyes,” according to a statement from his office.

The Babyn Yar memorial sits atop a mass grave for some 34,000 Jews who were slaughtered there over a two-day period in 1941.

The president called the war in Ukraine “an affront to international order.”

“I am deeply concerned for the citizens of Ukraine and members of the Jewish community in peril,” he said. “I hope, and we all hope and pray, this war ends quickly.”

Herzog said that Israel is sending an “unprecedented amount” of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, totaling some 100 tons. He said the aid is a “moral obligation” and that the Jewish state is considering more ways to support the Ukrainian people.

The conflict in Ukraine, he said, “is a tragic reminder of the necessity of working together to protect our dearest values, principles, and interests.

He said this was the message he would take to Turkey, as he believes in “cooperation between people and all faiths for the wellbeing of humanity.”

Herzog’s trip to Cyprus comes ahead of a landmark first official visit to Turkey — a bitter rival of the island nation and of its ally Greece — later this month at the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Addressing Cyprus-Israel ties, Herzog said the relationship “is a pillar of Mediterranean stability in the present, and a key to a sustainable, healthy, and prosperous region in the future.”

Later, Anastasiades awarded Herzog Cyprus’s highest honor, the Grand Collar of the Order of Makarios III, as a token of the strong friendship between the two countries.