A Jewish cemetery was damaged in Russian shelling in the northern Ukrainian village of Hlukhiv on Sunday, local media reported.
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Some tombstones were smashed and others caught on fire in the cemetery where approximately 1,500 Jews are buried, many of whom were victims of a 1918 pogrom, as well as well-known Hassidic leaders of the time.
"The fact that the graves of the chief tsaddik [spiritual leader] have survived proves that all the higher powers are on our side," Ukraine's Culture Minister Oleksander Tkachenko said.
The Hlukhiv Jewish cemetery is the latest Jewish site to be damaged in the Ukraine-Russia war, which began on Feb. 24.
On Tuesday, Russia pounded away at Ukraine's vital southern port of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said, as they announced they found the bodies of 44 civilians in the rubble of a building in the northeast that was destroyed weeks ago.
The bodies were found in a five-story building that collapsed in March in Izyum, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the city of Kharkiv, which has been under sustained Russian attack since the beginning of the war in late February.
Izyum lies on a key route to the eastern industrial region of the Donbas, now the focus of Russia's war in Ukraine. Synehubov did not say specifically where the building was.
Earlier, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces fired seven missiles a day earlier from the air at the crucial Black Sea port of Odesa, hitting a shopping center and a warehouse. One person was killed and five were wounded, the military said.
Ukraine alleged at least some of the munitions used dated back to the Soviet era, making them unreliable in targeting. Ukrainian, British and American officials warn Russia is rapidly expending its stock of precision weapons and may not be able to quickly build more, raising the risk of more imprecise rockets being used as the conflict grinds on. That could result in wider damage and more civilian deaths.
But the Center for Defense Strategies, a Ukrainian think tank tracking the war, said Moscow did use some precision weapons against Odesa: Kinzhal, or "Dagger," hypersonic air-to-surface missiles.
Using advanced guided missiles allows Russia to fire at a distance without being exposed to potential anti-aircraft fire.
The strikes came the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin marked his country's biggest patriotic holiday without being able to boast of major new battlefield successes. On Monday, he watched troops march in formation and military hardware roll by in a Victory Day parade on Moscow's Red Square to celebrate the Soviet Union's role in the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany.
Many Western analysts had expected Putin to use the Victory Day holiday to trumpet some kind of victory in Ukraine or announce an escalation, but he did neither. Instead, he sought to justify the war again as a necessary response to what he portrayed as a hostile Ukraine.
Putin has long bristled at NATO's creep eastward into former Soviet republics. Ukraine and its Western allies have denied the country posed any threat.
"The danger was rising by the day," Putin said. "Russia has given a preemptive response to aggression. It was forced, timely, and the only correct decision."
A Zelenskyy adviser interpreted Putin's speech as indicating that Russia has no interest in escalating the war through the use of nuclear weapons or direct engagement with NATO.
In Washington, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan measure to reboot the World War II-era "lend-lease" program, which helped defeat Nazi Germany, to bolster Kyiv and Eastern European allies.
Russia has about 97 battalion tactical groups in Ukraine, largely in the east and the south, a slight increase over last week, according to a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon's assessment. Each unit has roughly 1,000 troops, according to the Pentagon.
The official said that overall, the Russian effort in the Donbas hasn't achieved any significant progress in recent days and continues to face stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces.
On Monday, US congressional Democrats agreed to rush $39.8 billion in additional aid for Ukraine, two sources familiar with the proposal said, easing fears a delayed vote could interrupt the flow of US weapons to the Kyiv government.
The House of Representatives could pass the plan, which exceeds Biden's request last month for $33 billion, as soon as Tuesday, and Senate leaders said they were also prepared to move quickly.
A proposal for additional COVID-19-related funding, which some Democrats had wanted to combine with the emergency Ukraine funding, will now be considered separately.
On April 28, Biden asked Congress for $33 billion to support Ukraine, including more than $20 billion in military assistance. That proposal was a dramatic escalation of US funding for the war with Russia.
The new proposal includes an additional $3.4 billion for military aid and $3.4 billion in humanitarian aid, the sources said.
Biden's fellow Democrats and Republicans both said they supported more aid for Ukraine and would approve emergency funding quickly, but it was delayed by disputes between the parties over whether additional funding for COVID-19 relief or stiffer immigration controls should be included.
Biden issued a statement calling on lawmakers to pass the funding and get it to his desk for him to sign it into law in the next few days. "We cannot allow our shipments of assistance to stop while we await further congressional action," he said.
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In related news, President and founder of the United Hatzalah emergency medical services organization Eli Beer flew to Moldova on Monday in an impromptu visit, heading into Ukraine to encourage volunteers of the organization who are active in the conflict zone and to deliver much-needed medical supplies.
As part of the trip, Beer spent some time praying at the gravesite of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Uman for a quick end to the war and the speedy recovery of those injured.
Beer visited with United Hatzalah team members who have been operating a group of ambulances and providing medical care to injured and ill people in various cities in Ukraine. He and his entourage also brought medical supplies from Israel and delivered them to the volunteers, as well as to various medical clinics in the region, including the medical center in Uman.
He and his team then went to Bucha and Kyiv, where they met with United Hatzalah members, and various health and government officials, to get a better understanding of the ongoing needs in the country.
Since the outbreak of Russia's war on Ukraine, United Hatzalah has been active in providing humanitarian aid and medical care and supplies to refugees, as well as operated ambulance teams inside Ukraine who have treated and rescued countless individuals thus far. The organization also arranged air transport for nearly 3,000 Ukrainian refugees to Israel.
During his visit to Uman – one of United Hatzalah's main centers of activity in Ukraine before the onset of the war – Beer said: "During peacetime, we see several hundred, if not thousands, of worshippers, but now the place is empty. My team and I are now praying here alone."
JNS.org contributed to this report.
