Russian Missile Explodes Near Kherson Shul

A missile exploded near the Ukrainian city of Kherson’s main Shul this weekend, severely damaging the building in a city already ravaged by two years of relentless crisis.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Wolf, the chief rabbi of Kherson and Chabad shliach, vividly described the aftermath in a statement on Sunday: “The Shul’s courtyard is completely littered with shrapnel, and the walls are endlessly peppered with these fragments,” he recounted. “After the missile exploded in the air, it released about 8000 shrapnels, scattering them all around.”

Kherson has been at the forefront of the devastation. Only two weeks earlier, the city was targeted in one of the most intense missile barrages since the conflict began. Emphasizing the perpetual unrest, Wolf lamented, “Our city hasn’t seen a single day of peace. A unique aspect here is the absence of a warning siren. The only alarm we have is the missile’s whistle itself.”

The Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine (FJCU), the umbrella organization that unites the approximately 180 communities in the country, said: “The vicious Russian attacks continue unabated and the world has almost forgotten the unimaginable reality we face. Our social workers and psychologists are in contact with the heads of the communities in Ukraine to provide a maximum response to every request.”