Zelensky on a Mission from God

By Alexander G. Markovsky

Soviet POWs covering a mass grave after the Babi Yar massacre, October 1, 1941. Photo by Johannes Hähle – History.kby.kiev.ua, Public Domain, Wikipedia

It’s been said that God acts in mysterious ways. In Judaism, the belief that vengeance belongs to God is rooted in the verse, “It is Mine to avenge; I will repay,” declares God (Deut. 32:35). From this perspective, it is plausible that to implement the God’s will and exact vengeance on Ukrainians for the atrocious crimes committed against Jews over the centuries, God has brought Vladimir Zelensky down to Earth and made him the President of Ukraine.

Indeed, Zelensky rise to power carries a sense of historical reckoning – no one has caused more Ukrainian deaths than Zelensky. The unnecessary war, which was provoked by Zelensky’s pursuit of NATO membership, has destroyed Ukraine, reduced it to rubble, cut its population by almost half, and continues killing men at a rate that the Ukrainians may not be able to reproduce.

Despite the sacrifices made, four years later, his objective remains unattained, prompting the question: What was the war for? It is hard not to perceive this senseless war as a kind of divine retribution.

Ukrainians, this is to you for Bogdan Khmelnitsky, for Petliura, for Bandera, for Makhno, for Babi Yar, for the countless ravines, forests, and outskirts throughout Ukraine where millions of innocent Jews were mercilessly tortured, raped, and brutally murdered just because they were Jews.

Although Jewish communities had long faced hostility in Russia, the year 1654 marked a decisive turning point in the region’s history. That year, Russian Tsar Alexey granted the petition of the Zaporozhian Host’s Cossacks — precursors of today’s Ukrainians—to come under the protection and authority of the Russian state. It is worth noting that, beyond agriculture and fishing, raiding was a central pillar of the Cossack economy. For generations, Cossack forces had raided neighboring territories, seizing goods, livestock, and people for ransom. But when their fortunes shifted and they faced the prospect of annihilation at the hands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Cossack Hetmanate, led by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, turned to Moscow. In a desperate bid for survival, they pledged allegiance to the Russian tsar.

The Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654 formalized the incorporation of the Hetmanate—its territory and its people—into the Russian state. The new territory was named Malorossia (Little Russia) and the region had effectively fallen under the Hetmanate limited self-rule. In the aftermath of the treaty, the Jewish community of Pereyaslav was destroyed and later prohibited from returning.

In the 19th century, intellectuals and national activists retroactively renamed the Zaporozhian Cossacks as Ukrainians. Ukrainians continued the Cossacks’ bloody tradition of killing Jews.

In the course of the Russian Civil War (1918–1921), the region of Malorossia, greatly expanded during the reign of Catherine the Great (1762–1796), became a turbulent battleground where criminal bands, anarchist detachments, and nationalist militias vied for power under the banner of “?????? ???????”—a free Ukraine. Despite their mutual hostility and shifting alliances, these groups shared one grim trait: a visceral, often murderous hatred of Jews.

Hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered in the wave of pogroms carried out by forces loyal to Symon Petliura’s short?lived Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR). During the same period, Nestor Makhno’s anarchists engaged in widespread violence committing numerous pogroms while invoking the same banner of “?????? ???????.” In Galicia, the West Ukrainian People’s Republic (ZUNR) emerged and later aligned with Petliura’s UPR; its forces likewise participated in acts of anti-Jewish violence. These instances represent just a fraction of the atrocities committed by various Ukrainian factions during this turbulent period.

However, these horrific acts were overshadowed by the extent of collaboration with Nazi Germany throughout the Holocaust. During the German occupation of Ukraine between 1941 and 1944, nationalist militias and local collaborators actively contributed to the extermination of Jews. Some estimates suggest that actions taken by Ukrainian nationalist groups, in conjunction with or in support of German forces, resulted in as many as one million Jewish deaths. Ukraine was notably one of the initial regions where the “Final Solution” was executed on a large scale, leading to the near-total annihilation of its Jewish community.

The killings were accomplished through a range of brutal methods, including mass shootings, hangings, and the use of mobile gas chambers—often referred to as gas vans or Gaswagen—which were specially modified vehicles that killed victims using carbon monoxide exhaust.

One of the most thoroughly documented atrocities was the massacre at Babi Yar, a ravine on the outskirts of Kyiv. Over the course of just two days, 33,771 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered there, marking one of the largest single mass shootings of the Holocaust.

In his October 1943 account, the great Soviet writer and journalist who was born to a Jewish family in Ukraine, Vasily Grossman, described a Ukraine in which “there are no Jews. Nowhere—not in Poltava, Kharkov, Kremenchug, Borispol, not in Iagotin… Stillness and Silence. A people has been murdered.”

It is important to acknowledge that millions of Ukrainians fought valiantly in the ranks of the Red Army, including Zelensky’s own grandfather. Their sacrifice contributed greatly to defeating Nazi Germany and driving the invaders out of Ukraine. However, recognizing this truth does little to absolve the nationalist factions whose hands are stained with the blood of millions. Their atrocities remain a brutal, indisputable part of the historical record, and no amount of heroism elsewhere can ever wash it away.

Alexander G. Markovsky, Ph.D. in economics and political science. He is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and the author of “Anatomy of a Bolshevik” and “Liberal Bolshevism: America Did Not Defeat Communism, She Adopted It.” Mr. Markovsky is the owner and CEO of Litwin Management Services, LLC. He can be reached at alexander.g.markovsky@gmai.com