Illustrative: Kyiv’s Chief Rabbi Yonatan Markovitch holds a fragment of a Russian drone that damaged the Chabad-run Perlina school in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 30, 2024. Photo: Jewish community JCC in Kyiv, Kyiv municipality, and Yan Dobronosov

A group of young men attacked a Jewish man outside of a synagogue in Kyiv on Saturday, hitting him with pepper spray.

The Obolon Synagogue, located in the Obolon district of Ukraine’s capital, was targeted shortly after noon as congregants marked Shabbat, the weekly Jewish day of rest. Witnesses said a group of several young men approached the building, jeered at worshipers, and made Nazi gestures while yelling “Sieg Heil.”

When one congregant stepped outside, the assailants sprayed him in the face with what police later described as an “irritant gas” before fleeing the scene. The victim, who was wearing a kippah and tzitzit (fringes on Jewish religious garments worn underneath a shirt), suffered burns and severe irritation to his eyes and skin, according to statements from the Chabad Kyiv Jewish Community and the United Jewish Community of Ukraine.

Chabad Kyiv condemned the assault as a “brutal antisemitic attack” that desecrated the sanctity of the Sabbath. “This was a deliberate, cruel, and premeditated antisemitic act,” the community said in a statement. It added that the attack “overshadowed Shabbat at the Obolon Synagogue” and left local Jews shaken.

The incident followed an earlier episode the previous day in which a similar group of youths appeared near the synagogue, shouting antisemitic insults at the rabbi and mocking worshipers. Community leaders said they believe the same individuals returned on Saturday to escalate their harassment into physical violence.

The Kyiv Jewish Community in Obolon described the sequence of events in a social media post: “Around 3:00 pm, the men inside the synagogue saw youths approach our building and begin demonstratively gesturing. One of our community members stepped out to them. Seeing a man wearing a kippah and tzitzit, the boys drenched him with tear gas from two spray cans and fled.”

Community representatives said police were informed of the assault only after the post began circulating online. In response, the Kyiv Police Department issued a statement confirming that it had opened an investigation into “provocative actions against a member of the religious community.”

The statement read that “police determine the circumstances of the attack on members of the religious community in the Obolonsky district of the capital. The event became known by the law enforcement officers from social networks. According to the published post, a group of unidentified youngsters, outside a synagogue building, began shouting antisemitic slogans, showing Nazi greetings and then using gas in provocative actions against a member of the community. Currently, the fact is under investigation, the police establish all the circumstances of the event, as well as its participants. The issue of legal qualification is being resolved.”

As of Monday, authorities had not announced any arrests or identified suspects.