'Putin has underestimated the Ukrainian people's will to fight'

Former President of Poland & Member of the Supervisory Board of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center Aleksander Kwaśniewski, addressed the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Israel yesterday, and spoke about the current situation of Ukraine. "Only Putin knows what is ahead of us. He wants to return to the "great Russia" days and have Ukraine as Russa's influence country. This situation can be very dramatic and very tragic. Putin underestimates Ukrainian's willingness to fight. I hope that there will not be an all-out war but we can expect an escalation initiated by Russia".

President Kwaśniewski was speaking in a panel discussion on Holocaust commemoration and education as a supervisory board member of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, along with the Head of the Supervisory Board Natan Sharansky, Head of the Academic Council Father Patrick Desbois and Deputy General Director Ruslan Kavatsiuk and Prof. Dina Porat, Chief historian of Yad Vashem.

The group presented recent developments and future plans in building Eastern Europe’s largest Holocaust memorial center, at Babyn Yar in Kyiv, to represent the "Holocaust by Bullets", the stories of the 2.5 million Jews that were shot to death and buried near their home in death pits, 1.5 million in Ukraine alone. READ MORE