Ukraine is also grateful for your personal commitment," President Volodymyr Zelensky said  (Updated:  May 6, 2025 2:23 am)Drones target Moscow second night in a row, Russian official claims. Debris from one of the drones reportedly fell on the Kashirskoye Highway The reported attack comes just days before Russia's Victory Day parade and three-day "truce." MPs will be able to ask questions and learn more about the details of the agreement in meetings with Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko May 6-7 MP Serhii Sobolev told the news outlet Suspilne The ratification vote is scheduled for May 8 Attacks against the border villages of Bilopillia and Vorozhba damaged civilian infrastructure and triggered emergency evacuations the regional military administration reported "I look forward to working with President Erdogan on getting the ridiculous war between Russia and Ukraine ended — now!" U.S Putin's Victory Day truce "doesn't sound like much if you know where we started from," Trump told reporters at the White House on May 5 Far-right Euroskeptic candidate George Simion head of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan placed second with 20.99% of the vote and the candidate from the ruling coalition "It requires the continuation of contacts between Moscow and Washington which have been launched and are now ongoing," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said set to operate within the Council of Europe will focus on Russia's political and military leaders up to 20 Russian soldiers were killed and their equipment destroyed The move represents an apparent violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions passed in the wake of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests "We are ready to deepen our contribution to the training of the Ukrainian military," Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on May 5 by Abbey FenbertEmergency workers evacuate residents from an apartment building in Zhmerynka after a Russian attack overnight on May 26 (State Emergency Service of Ukraine / Telegram)Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being updated Russian forces attacked the town of Zhmerynka in Vinnytsia Oblast in the early hours of May 25 hitting residential buildings and injuring three people The attack struck an apartment building in Zhmerynka, Governor Serhii Borzov said at 4:23 a.m Three people were injured and residents are being evacuated The injured victims were examined by doctors and did not require hospitalization The State Emergency Service of Ukraine later reported that falling drone debris damaged three four-story residential buildings Forty people were evacuated from the damaged units The Air Force announced an aerial alert throughout the country overnight on May 26 due to the threat of Russian missiles Explosions were also reported in Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, and Kyiv oblasts Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent and playwright with an MFA from Boston University Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011 Hypertension is a cardiovascular disease characterised by a systematic increase in blood pressure and monitoring blood pressure can help reduce the risk of this disease National CommitteeUkrainian Red Cross Society Read about the heroes of the Second World War and the current Russian war against Ukraine in the history of one family in an RBC-Ukraine article The Second World War took millions of lives 8 to 10 million Ukrainians died in the war This is almost a quarter of the country's population at the time Ukraine celebrates the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II amid an ongoing Russian war against Ukraine when modern heroes are giving their lives for us Kyiv resident Yurii Medynskyi lost his father in World War II and his grandson during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 RBC-Ukraine met with him to talk about how the fates of the two wars intersect 87-year-old Yurii Medynskyi comes to the meeting wearing an embroidered shirt "Glory to Ukraine," he says loudly from afar so his granddaughter Oksana leads him by the hand the grandfather immediately lays out the photos in front of us he takes out two large portraits - a black-and-white photo of his father Maksym who died at the end of World War II in Poland who lost his life defending Ukraine from Russia in 2022 Both of them are named Maksym: his children named their son after his father," the grandfather says with tears in his eyes The whole family stayed in a village in the Vinnytsia region under German occupation for three years "I was four when our troops retreated in 1941 The road to Zhmerynka passed through the village everyone thought that something bad was going to happen," Yurii Maksymovych recalls Photo: Yurii Medynskyi lost his father in World War II and his grandson in the current Russian war against Ukraine (Vitalii Nosach/RBC-Ukraine) They were given a couple of horses and a cart from the collective farm they were met by soldiers who insisted on turning around because the Germans were already nearby The Germans decided not to cancel the work of the local collective farms: they sent a man from western Ukraine to control how the locals worked They saw that Yurii's father had a specialized education and forced him to work as an agronomist Those who fell from fatigue or could not work were called to the village council I heard about one case where a girl was shot The Germans destroyed our apiary: they came in the middle of winter and smashed all the hives And the occupants took all the honey," the man says Once the Germans came to the MedynskyI family's yard and shot their pig The neighbors heard the shots and thought they had shot my father They saw the blood in our yard through the fence," the interviewee recalls Photo: The Medynskyi family before the outbreak of World War II (Vitalii Nosach/RBC-Ukraine) the occupiers organized a celebration at the school One of the soldiers raised his rifle and fired The bullet passed over the head of Yurii's father The children and their mother managed to run out of the house and hide behind the barn They stayed in their shirts right in the snow until they were pulled out one of the Germans came to Yurii's grandmother's house and poured a whole bag of white crackers on the table Children from neighboring yards often played together and sometimes the Germans would sit the children on a wooden counter "I heard that they sent the photos home to Germany then some family probably has my childhood photo the troops of the First Ukrainian Front entered the suburbs of Vinnytsia and the region's industry was almost completely destroyed It so happened that Vinnytsia was captured by the 4th German Mountain Infantry Division on July 19-20 and the same division retreated from the city on March 19-20 Photo: Yurii Medynskyi carefully collects all the information about his ancestors (VitaliI Nosach/RBC-Ukraine) Yurii and his mother went to see him off: they didn't know then that this was the last time they would see their father Yurii grew up and wanted to find the place where his father was buried where my father was mentioned," says Yurii "My mistake was that I did not record those programs They said that their commander had been killed in the battles in Poland and my father took over the command and they repelled the Nazi offensive My father was awarded the Order of the Red Star Yurii Medynskyi almost graduated from a mining college in Tallinn He entered the Lviv Military and Political School He served as the head of the regimental club "My father agreed to be transferred to a distant garrison in Siberia Then he served as a teacher in Stavropol at a military school and defended his dissertation participated in the work of the Union of Officers of Ukraine and compiled a book about the movement of Ukrainian officers He wrote and published a book about the first commander of the Navy of independent Ukraine He served as deputy head of the Ukrainian Cossacks He organized and edited the Optimist newspaper," the man recalls Photo: Yurii's son Serhii worked as a military journalist and editor of a divisional newspaper (Vitalii Nosach/RBC-Ukraine) Yurii kept searching for information about his father He died near the village of Pelhzhymovytsi and was buried in a mass grave near the town of Pshchyna Yurii Maksymovych went there as soon as he could It turned out that the priest knew in detail about the battles between the Soviet and German armies in these lands and where the soldiers were buried The local administration quickly found his father's file the Poles made an inscription on the monument He planted a viburnum in honor of those who gave their lives for Ukraine It is important to preserve at least some stories about relatives who lived then looks very much like his great-grandfather "This photo especially shows that they look alike," the grandfather points to two portraits on the bench his grandson reminds him of his father because they were both decent and honest Maksym Medynskyi refused to sign denunciations against his fellow villagers He said that one should not betray one's own His grandson had the same views: he sought justice everywhere in his life 70 years later he stood up to defend his homeland Maksym went to war as a volunteer back in 2014 and he and his wife Tetiana had a daughter Photo: Maksym returned from the war and got married he went to the front again (from his personal archive) he would instantly appear and help," recalls Maks' sister Oksana She and her brother were very close all their lives but the age difference did not prevent the siblings from having common interests Photo: Maksym and his sister Oksana have been very close since childhood (from the personal archive) "He took me to his university dormitory twice a year for the holidays The way I treat different situations in life now is thanks to him I started riding a motorcycle thanks to my brother And I jumped with a parachute when I was only 16 but my brother had more than 50 jumps," she says Photo: Oksana and Maksym had many common interests (from personal archive) Maksym studied at Shevchenko University and worked as a journalist and communicator at the Energy Research Center at the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine When the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine began he did not wait for a call and volunteered for the second time He served in the 95th separate airborne assault brigade his unit was stationed in the village of Kurulka The soldiers in the trenches were taking a roll call between Russian attacks they took turns reporting whether they were alive His comrades approached him and saw that a piece of shrapnel had hit him in the head Photo: Yurii Medynskyi at the grave of his grandson Maksym (Serhii Medynskyi) his wife's native village in the Kyiv region He was posthumously awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky for personal courage and the Order "For Courage" of the III degree for his contribution to Ukrainian journalism we now have two guardian angels in heaven," says Yurii where the canopy explodes every fall into leafy clouds of yellow “I did not tell my husband this fear,” said Liberchuck who survived the Holocaust as a child by hiding from the Nazis in a cellar, escaped the Soviet Union in 1988 and now lives in Passaic “The only thing I was afraid of was: What if America doesn’t have autumn?” And then it happened. Liberchuk’s first home in the United States was an apartment in Brooklyn where the trees stood in spindly rows by the curb “In Brooklyn we didn’t have fall colors All we had was naked trees,” she said They’re more sincere because they’re not covered in nice dresses and sleeves.” Her poetry is not the empty romanticism of a flowery Pollyanna I will survive with this,’ ” Liberchuk said Garden State of Mind: Missing for 48 years, Bogota Marine is buried at Arlington Garden State of Mind: This Harvey volunteer used his large military truck to rescue hundreds of survivors Garden State of Mind: Savvy, quiet and free, a Passaic cobbler goes his own way As an adult she spent 30 years navigating Soviet oppression Arriving in the United States at age 49 with no money and no job and speaking no English she built the life she’d always dreamed of After surviving years of state-sponsored terror against Judaism Liberchuk is learning to live by the laws of her faith You think how you will make it,” she said bought train tickets to take Claudia east He asked Raisa to step off the train so he could load in his furniture with the Liberchuks still standing on the platform in the western Ukrainian city of Vinnitsia they discovered that their neighbor had taken possession of their house The man did not feed Liberchuk’s family But he did allow them to hide in the cellar Liberchuk learned this story from her mother years later “He put himself at risk” by hiding them from the Nazis Liberchuk’s grandmother lived 30 miles away in a small town called Zhmerynka rumors circulated that Jews in Zhmerynka (pronounced shma-RAY-nka) would be spared Raisa Liberchuk carried Claudia to her mother’s house “We were eating raw corn out of the field,” Liberchuk said “and drinking water from the ditch by the side of the road.” More: Holocaust survivor tells students, "Be kind to one another" Related: Holocaust survivor stories: Agnes Adler shares tale of courage a Jewish man and skillful politician who managed to save most of Zhmerynka’s residents from murder according to a study published in 2012 by Vadim Altskan a senior researcher at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Liberchuk and her family lived under constant threat from passing German soldiers a group of soldiers beat and kicked her in the street This was the family’s food for three years “I was a horrible eater,” Liberchuk said Liberchuk lived with seven other people in a room barely big enough for a bed and an armchair But my grandmother took them in,” Liberchuk said Raisa Liberchuk was walking down a road with Claudia in her arms the family quilt draped over her dress of rags They passed a Soviet soldier walking on crutches and a wooden leg They did not recognize each other — three years of war and starvation had aged them decades “It was my father,” Liberchuk said Liberchuk's parents kept their Judaism secret she dipped cotton in kerosene and burned it in the casing of a defused landmine Liberchuk’s mother said these deeds were meant to remember Claudia's grandfather Finding ways outLiberchuk went to night school in Kiev gave birth to a son and got a high-paying job engineering rocket caps for the Soviet military The job came with a high security clearance That plus her Jewish heritage meant the Soviets kept close tabs on her movements making it difficult for Liberchuk to escape “I always thought: As soon as I leave this country She took a lower-paying job as a structural engineer then waited years for the government to forget about her When their application finally was approved eight years later they relinquished their apartment and most of their possessions Kennedy International Airport with $150 from the Soviet government making matzo for the Manischewitz Co. for $7 an hour “I never was so rich in my life,” Liberchuk said I can buy a sweater for myself!’ ” Liberchuk got a job with a construction company and taught herself electrical engineering She and her husband bought an apartment in the Bronx where they made friends who also enjoyed visiting museums and attending Broadway shows I had read about the Impressionist and Surrealist painters In the Soviet Union I could not see them,” she said “Now I finally got a chance to see them in person Liberchuk’s son Alexander moved to Passaic joined the city’s Orthodox Jewish community and started a family and Liberchuk faced a choice: stay in the Bronx and continue to enjoy the city’s culture with her non-observant Jewish friends or move to Passaic and join her son’s religious life “I am not religious like the people here They don’t listen to classical music like I do and their only concerns are their families.” a program for senior citizens run by Jewish Family Service and Children's Center of Clifton-Passaic where she supports President Donald Trump “For 49 years I lived in a country where everybody had to have one opinion,” she said “I came to United States to have my own opinion.” Liberchuk still makes the best of new situations All her life she wore pants and short-sleeved shirts Liberchuk welcomed a visitor into her apartment — 4,600 miles and a lifetime away from the Holocaust ghetto of Zhmerynka — wearing a long beige skirt and a long-sleeved shirt that buttoned high at the neck “Sometimes I’m surprised myself by how I adapt to different circumstances but I don’t know the customs” of Judaism Watch a video of Claudia Liberchuk talking about surviving the Holocaust  and reuniting with her father. Visit https://njersy.co/Liberchuk