Putin Threatens New Disaster for Soviet Horror Survivors

LVIV, Ukraine—Vladimir Putin has consistently used the oppression of Jews to justify his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While countless Ukrainian cities are burned to the ground, and civilian casualties continue to rise, the Russian president has claimed that his war has been made in the name of de-nazifying the neighboring country. Instead, it has invoked the horrors of World War II into the lives of Russia’s public.

Few Jewish communities in Ukraine have been depleted like that in Lviv, the once vibrant cultural hub for the religion. But, with a population of just 1,500 before February 24, the war in Ukraine raises concerns about the future of the city's ties to the community and if it will be able to survive, and a fear of what Putin’s wrath might bring.

“He wants to restart the spread of communism in the world, and he wants to establish a bank system in the Soviet-style,” Meylakh Sheykhet, Director for the Ukraine Department of the Union Council of Soviet Union Jews, told The Daily Beast. “Ukrainian people, we already tasted the taste of freedom. We don’t want to be under Putin. And especially, we’re afraid of him coming back. And bring back the Soviet system of watching people, monitoring people, and leaving [us] afraid to not have any justice to keep their freedom.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.