Several windows in the Great Synagogue in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv were damaged last night; glass panes were shattered after a missile fired by the Russian army exploded in a nearby mall.
There were more than a hundred Jewish refugees in the basement of the synagogue at the time of the incident.
Rabbi Moshe Moshkowitz, the rabbi of Kharkiv and the local Chabad emissary, said, "In the last few days, we placed sandbags against all the windows on the ground floor. We are all worried about the Jews in the basement of the synagogue. Most of them elderly people who cannot leave. "
He added that, "Food and medicine are running out and we are trying to bring in supplies despite the danger of traveling on the roads. This morning we called in workmen to repair the damage and meanwhile we are still trying to get as many Jews out of the city as possible, with the help of Chabad and the Federation of Jewish Communities."
Rabbi Meir Stambler, director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine, described how "we have already succeeded in rescuing 30 thousand Jews from Kharkiv, Kyiv, and other cities in the east and south of Ukraine."