Rabbi Jonathan Markovitch holds a fragment of a Russian drone that damaged the Chabad-run Perlina school in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 30, 2024. (Courtesy Kyiv Jewish Community)
(JTA) — KYIV, Ukraine — A Jewish school in the Ukrainian capital suffered “significant structural damage” after being hit by a Russian drone early on Wednesday, according to the Kyiv Jewish community operating the center.
The Israeli ambassador in Ukraine, Michael Brodsky, and local authorities confirmed the strike on the Perlina school, part of the Or Avner Chabad educational network.
No one was harmed at the school, but nine people were injured as a result of the same attack in an adjacent multistory residential building, according to the Kyiv Military Administration.
“The school’s reinforced windows, equipped with protective film, prevented further harm to the interior of the structure,” said a statement from the Chabad-run community, which speaks of “extensive damage” in some of the “classrooms, the school shuttle and the student lounge” as a result of the “direct hit” of the Russian drone.
The mayor of Kyiv, former boxing world champion Vitalyi Klitschko, visited the school together with Jonathan Markovitch, the Chabad chief rabbi of Ukraine’s capital, and his wife, Rebbetzin Elka Ina Markovitch. Police officials also inspected the site to assess the consequences of the hit.
Both the community and the local authorities distributed photographs of the affected infrastructure. Some of them show the damaged windows and walls of the Jewish school. In another photo, a fragment of the drone can be seen in the outdoor playground of the school, which community sources said serves a few hundred children throughout the year.
Several floors of the nearby residential building hit by the explosion were partially burned and destroyed.
Jonathan Markovitch said it was a “tremendous miracle” that students were not in the building at the time of the attack and vowed his commitment to keep the school open. “Just as the school has remained operational throughout the war, so too will we continue to nurture our children’s souls, even in these challenging times,” he said in a statement.
According to the Kyiv Military Administration, Wednesday’s drone attack was the 19th launched in October by Russian forces against the capital of Ukraine, which as other regions in the country is targeted almost every night by swarms of the Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones used at a massive scale by Russia in this war.
Russia has also taken to using glide drones that can evade detection by air defense systems and have extended the danger zone for strikes to cities that have previously been considered relatively safe.
During the early hours of Wednesday, Russia launched a total of 62 drones against Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions. Of them, 33 were drowned by Ukraine’s air defense and another 25 were neutralized with countermeasures of electronic warfare, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Wednesday.
Ukrainian Jewish institutions have been hit several times during the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. In the early days of the war, the Hillel in Kharkiv was destroyed by shelling, and the Hillel in Odessa was severely damaged last year.
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