The body of a 25-year-old Jewish man who was reported missing more than three weeks ago was found mutilated and dumped in a Kiev neighborhood late Friday night.
Kiev Police reportedly believe Aryeh-Leib Misenzon was kidnapped and murdered, and that his assailants mutilated his body shortly thereafter.
Chabad officials identified him as the man who has been missing since April 20, the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birthday.
Yaakov Zilberman, a prominent member of the Jewish community in the Ukrainian capital, said Misenzon was killed because he was Jewish. "I identified the body. They decapitated him. Police say the cell's leader has been arrested.
"Police are continuing tests, including genetics and DNA since the body was found in almost ten pieces,” he said, adding that the murder was "undoubtedly" an act of anti-Semitism.
Zilberman said the victim had studied at the local Chabad yeshiva for three years and also lived in Israel for a short period of time. Misenzon's parents reside in Moscow.
According to Zilberman, "Many Jews here are confronted by groups of skin-heads wearing Nazi uniforms at metro stations in central Kiev. The skin-heads walk around without fear in the center of town and no one says a word."
Zilberman said the Ukrainian chief rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Reuvein Asman, was in Israel at the time of the murder, and cut his trip short in order to arrange for the body's release and burial.