Russian Strikes Leave 1,000 Jewish Homes in Ukraine Needing Urgent Repairs

World Jewish Relief said at the weekend that dozens of Jewish residents in Ukraine have been hurt by recent Russian attacks, after shattered windows, damaged roofs and unsafe buildings forced some families to leave their homes. The charity said the wider wave of strikes, part of an intensified Russian air campaign, has hit cities including Kyiv and Sumy and caused extensive damage to residential neighborhoods.

The organization said Kyiv was among the hardest hit in one of the largest attacks of the war, which it described as involving 90 missiles and 600 drones, including a hypersonic Oreshnik missile. During a recent briefing, World Jewish Relief chief executive Paul Anticoni said the situation facing Ukraine’s Jewish population is becoming increasingly urgent. “The Jewish community of Ukraine is one of the most vulnerable Jewish communities in the world right now,” he said.

Anticoni said the London-based charity estimates about 1,000 Jewish homes now need urgent repairs. World Jewish Relief has worked in Ukraine for more than 30 years and supports about 8,000 elderly Jews through local partners. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, it has provided emergency aid, welfare support, home care, medical assistance and house repairs.

British Jewish News reported that one of the people receiving help is 86-year-old Holocaust survivor Rita, whose Kyiv apartment was badly damaged in a Russian strike. Born into a Jewish family in Vinnytsia, she fled the Nazis as a child and lost her father during World War II. After an explosion blew out the windows of her flat, she said, “We were all covered in glass, and the whole window frame fell on me,” adding that the shockwave shattered the glass into “tiny pieces” and that “everything had to be thrown away.”

Rita was moved elsewhere for safety, but because she has dementia, being away from familiar surroundings distressed her, and she later returned home after emergency repairs. Her daughter Natalia said the ordeal significantly worsened her mother’s dementia symptoms. Another 86-year-old beneficiary, Ida Drabytko of Sumy, said her apartment was badly damaged in April, with shattered windows and a partially destroyed roof. After the building was later declared unsafe, she was allowed back only briefly to collect documents and a few personal items. “It was very painful for me,” she said. “I still cry almost every day because of what happened.”