Together with the Ukrainian president, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other leaders, Herzog will participate in the official international ceremony marking 80 years since the Babi Yar Massacre and inaugurating Kiev’s new memorial center.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived in Kiev on Tuesday for the first state visit of his presidency, at the invitation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“The Jewish People have a glorious past here but also a tragic and painful history. Tomorrow I shall take part in the inauguration ceremony for the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, marking 80 years since the Babi Yar Massacre,”he said upon his arrival in the Ukrainian capital.

Together with the Ukrainian president, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other leaders, Herzog will participate in the official international ceremony marking 80 years since the Babi Yar Massacre and inaugurating Kyiv’s new memorial center.

During the visit, several official events will be held with the participation of the presidents of Ukraine and Germany and the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center.

‘’We shall remember and never forget the terrible massacre at Babi Yar, in which 33,000 Jews were massacred, shot dead into pits, naked, in the terrible cold—men, children, the elderly, and women. May their memory be a blessing,” he said.

The Israeli president will also conduct a state visit in Ukraine.  “Ukraine and Israel have good relations. This year, we mark 30 years of Ukrainian independence and 30 years of relations between Israel and Ukraine,’’ Herzog said.

He thanked President Zelensky, the Ukrainian government, and the Ukrainian  IHRA’s definition of antisemitism.

‘’The only way to build a present and future in which atrocities and crimes against humanity find no foothold is only to study the past, including the Holocaust of the Jewish People and their persecution, in the sense of ‘and you shall tell your sons and daughters’.’’

He also welcomed the fact that Ukraine boycotted the Durban Conference.