Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, spoke to Kol Chai Radio Sunday morning about the situation of the Jewish community of Ukraine as Ukrainian and Russian military forces do battle do battle on the outskirts of the city.

"I left Ukraine in the middle of the week and arrived in the United States," Rabbi Bleich said.

"Inside Kyiv there are something like 8-9 Jewish communities, from our community which was the largest I took out who I could until Thursday. On Thursday I took people out one last time - a bus and something like twenty cars, about 100 people, that's in addition to 150 people a week before and they went to a camp we had prepared outside of Kyiv. It is a hundred kilometers west of Kyiv," he said.

He said: "Those from my community who did not want to [leave] stayed in Kyiv, and there are other communities left as well. On Friday afternoon, just before Shabbat, another 40-50 people from the communities of Chabad next to us who were not ready to evacuate came to my community in Kyiv."

He added: "On Shabbat afternoon the rabbi came there by bus and took them out and they went to Zhytomyr. Those from my community stayed there because a curfew began on Saturday at five in the afternoon until Monday morning at eight. It is because of the massive attack by the Russians."

Rabbi Bleich said that the Ukrainian president called him and asked that the Jewish people pray for his success. "President Zelensky called me a few hours ago, while waging war, and asked the entire Jewish people to pray for the soldiers of Ukraine: 'The Russians have more soldiers than us, but our soldiers have more determination than the Russians. We need your prayers for us to succeed,' the Ukrainian president said."