Ukraine marks anniversary of Nazi massacres in Kyiv

Ukraine -- Survivors, high-ranking Ukrainian officials and Jewish community leaders paid solemn tribute Sept. 29 to victims of a Nazi massacre of Jews at the Babi Yar ravine.

More than 33,700 Ukrainian Jews were killed when Nazi forces occupying Kyiv over just a few days. The killings continued for months in Babi Yar.

The final death toll was never established, since the Nazis destroyed thousands of bodies, but it was believed to be more than 100,000.

Ukraine's chief rabbi Yakov Blaikh, who was among the mourners, complained that only about 200 elderly people took part in the ceremony and neither the president nor the new prime minister participated. Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov was on a trip to the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk.