90-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor and Historian Injured in Russian Missile Attack on Kyiv

Boris Zverko, a 90-year-old Jewish-Ukrainian historian and Holocaust survivor, was wounded during a recent Russian missile strike on Kyiv. Zverko, who chairs the All-Ukrainian Association of Jews who were prisoners of Nazi ghettos and concentration camps, was injured when a Russian Zircon hypersonic missile hit the courtyard of his residential building in Kyiv. Although hit by shrapnel, he survived the attack.

Zverko is a prominent Holocaust researcher in Ukraine, having published over 230 books and articles and received numerous academic awards. He survived the Shargorod ghetto during World War II with his family, who were saved by the Ukrainian Samborsky family. The Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Rabbi Moshe Azman, highlighted the tragic symbolism of Zverko's injury, noting that a man who survived Nazi persecution as a child now faces death again due to the Russian war against Ukraine.

The All-Ukrainian Association of Jews from the ghettos emphasized that Zverko's story is among several accounts of Holocaust survivors affected by the war. They referenced Roman Schwartzman, who testified before the Bundestag in January 2025 about his apartment’s destruction by a Russian missile. The organization stressed that survivors who once escaped death during the Holocaust now endure nightly air raid shelters and missile attacks.

The missile strike on Kyiv caused widespread damage, killing at least 30 people and hitting various targets including research institutions of the National Academy of Sciences, a hospital evacuated from Mariupol, logistics warehouses, energy infrastructure, and the city zoo. Zverko’s exact medical condition has not been disclosed.