As President Donald Trump pushes forward with mediation efforts for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, fighting on the ground has not subsided. On Tuesday afternoon, a Russian missile struck the Jewish cemetery in the city of Pervomaisk in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region. Videos from the site showed flames spreading through several areas of the cemetery, though the full extent of the damage to headstones remains unclear.
Jewish cemetery in Ukraine on fire
The missile hit the Bohopol cemetery, the largest of five Jewish burial grounds in the city. Named after the former town of Bohopol —now a neighborhood of Pervomaisk—the cemetery carries deep historical weight. Before the Holocaust, around 30,000 Jews lived in the area, and among those buried there are prominent rabbis, including Rabbi Yisrael the Holy of Bohapol and Rabbi Mordechai of Talna.
In 2004, Rabbi Levi-Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana Perlstein arrived as Chabad emissaries, reopening the city’s synagogue and helping to rebuild Jewish life. Today, about 2,000 Jews remain in Pervomaisk, and next month a new ritual bath (mikveh) is scheduled to be inaugurated.
Rabbi Levi-Yitzchak described the aftermath of the missile strike. “Fire trucks came to put out the blazes, which caused significant damage to gravestones. We are assessing the destruction in order to safeguard the sanctity of the dead. We are here as emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and nothing will deter us or our fellow shluchim from our mission,” he said.
Rabbi Meir Stambler, chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine, warned of a broader pattern. “This is the fourth attack on the Jewish community in Ukraine within a month. Just last week a synagogue in Odessa was hit; three weeks ago, the home of Rabbi Moshe Weber in Dnipro was damaged; and only days earlier, the car of Rabbi Yossi Wolf, the rabbi of Kherson, was struck directly by a drone. By God’s grace, no lives were lost in any of these incidents. There must be an end to Russian terror, which is leaving behind death and destruction throughout Ukraine. We pray for peace and redemption.”