Real battles have been taking place for the past two days between Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in the Poltava region, just 5 km from the city of Hadytsich, where the founder of Chabad Hasidism, 'Baal Tanya', is buried.
His memorial is visited every year by thousands of Jews and non-Jews from all over the world, mainly from Israel and the United States.
The emissary there, Rabbi Shneur-Zalman Deutsch, now fears that the holy compound – which includes a huge complex of prayer and study halls, guest rooms, dining rooms and mikvahs – may be damaged during the exchange of fire.
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Eight Jewish families permanently reside in Haditch, and there is also a Chabad yeshiva there, but now there are two families in the city - the family of the yeshiva head and the family of the yeshiva supervisor - along with five young men, who can no longer escape because all access routes to the city are blocked.
In the 7 cities and small villages within 100 km of Haditz, there are now another 203 Jewish families, who are assisted daily by the local Chabad emissary and director of the complex, Rabbi Schneur-Zalman Deitsch, who is currently with his family in Israel, on the occasion of a family celebration.
The Deitch family traveled to Israel last week and was scheduled to return to Hadditch today (Wednesday) and are now managing the Holy Zion complex remotely.
Rabbi Deitch: "On Sunday, Russian forces arrived in the area. The Ukrainians blew up a wooden bridge and prevented them from continuing their journey, and they were also stranded without fuel. I am receiving reports from eyewitnesses that the civilians in the area are tailing the Russian army forces and have also managed to take control of several tanks in the area. From the Zion compound, clouds of smoke can be seen rising above the battle areas.".
He added: "The warehouses in the Zion compound are full of food, which we share with the Jews of the area, but it will not last more than a week. I am very afraid of looting, but some of our local workers are guarding the place while carrying weapons. We have invested huge sums of money, a lot of time and our whole soul in this compound, and we are afraid that the fighting will spill over to Zion itself. I have not slept for two days due to the great pressure.".
Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine, Rabbi Meir Stambler: "We are following the fighting in the area with concern and hope that the holy site, which is visited by many Jews throughout the year, will remain out of the fighting range.".
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