A Jewish man in his 40s was killed today while attempting to flee Ukraine for Moldova. The man, identified as 41-year-old Roman Brodsky, an Israeli citizen and father of two, was killed when his car—part of a 12-person, two-car convoy headed to Moldova—was fired upon. The circumstances of the killing remain unclear.

With Russia’s offensive on Ukraine intensifying, many families and the vulnerable are attempting to leave Ukraine via its western borders into Moldova, Poland or Romania.

Brodsky was killed about 20 miles out of Belaya Tserkov (Bila Tserkva), says Rabbi Meir Holtzberg, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Belaya Tserkov together with his wife, Brochah. Holtzberg spoke with Chabad.org from the basement of the Chabad center, where his family is sheltering together with several Jewish community members. “His body is right now 30 miles away from us, and we cannot do anything until the morning because of the curfew,” he says.

RELATED

Belaya Tserkov is just 50 miles south of Kiev, the site of some of the heaviest fighting in recent days, and so is coming under heavy fire itself. “Just an hour ago [7 p.m. local time] a Sukhoi jet flew over the area and bombed our city,” Holtzberg says. “We’re sleeping in shelters.”

Chabad of Belaya Tserkov has been able to supply 400 local Jews with food, he says, while the community still conducted prayer services on Shabbat and Monday morning, before the situation worsened. “There are sirens each hour,” Holtzberg says. “The city is in darkness. We’re praying.”

The Ukraine Jewish Relief Fund has been established to help provide assistance to the Jewish communities in Ukraine impacted by the war.

Click here for a prayer you can say and a list of good deeds you can do in the merit of the protection of all those in harm’s way.