A local farmer in Ukraine destroyed an ancient Jewish cemetery in recent weeks with a tractor, after he began plowing the land on the territory of the historic cemetery.
The incident occurred near the village of Pankratova in the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk in the Mykolaiv region.
The incident was revealed by local historians Vasyl Slyabin and Oleksandr Shiva, who rushed to report the act to the authorities.
This Jewish cemetery has been operating on the site for more than 150 years, and its remains were known among the local population.
The director general of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine, Vitaly Kamuzin, said that the farmer rented land adjacent to the cemetery, but gradually took over part of the historical area itself, destroying tombstones and plowing the land.
According to Kamuzin, the Jewish community that lived there in the 19th century lived next to a small German colony, and the cemetery was allocated to it separately.
Kamuzin noted that the location of the cemetery had previously been verified using Soviet maps from the 1930s-1940s, as well as according to the testimonies of local elders.
Following the historians' appeal, the Ukrainian police opened an investigation, and Kamuzin announced that the Jewish community would submit an official request for an urgent examination of the circumstances of the destruction.