Israeli Citizen Killed In Mariupol Shelling, Wife And Daughter To Arrive In Israel On Humanitarian Visas

NEW YORK (VINnews) — An Israeli citizen was killed by Russian shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, according to a Foreign Ministry statement Tuesday.

Sergei Boltinsky, 49, was reportedly killed on March 24th while making his way to one of the synagogues in Mariupol in order to enquire on how to evacuate himself and his family; his mother, nephew, wife and daughter to make their way to Israel.

Boltinsky immigrated to Israel about 12 years ago, and three years later returned to Ukraine, where he met his second wife, Natalia. The couple have a seven-year-old daughter, Elizabetha. The widow and daughter are expected to be arriving in Israel in the coming days on humanitarian visas as they are not Jewish and cannot officially receive Israeli citizenship.

Two days after Boltinsky’s death, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews NGO aided his 71-year-old mother Tamara and 16-years-old nephew Nikita in fleeing the beleaguered city and they eventually made their way to Israel via a special rescue flight from Moldova.

“Since the war we have tried to escape the city but have not succeeded. We lived in very difficult conditions, without water, gas, electricity and without the possibility of communicating with the outside world,” said Natalia shortly after her husband’s death.

“Who could have imagined that war would break out and that Sergei would die? We did not believe Russia would attack Ukraine.

“After Sergei was killed we were not allowed to see his body, we do not even know where he is buried. The whole city is devastated. It was impossible to go out to identify the body and certainly not to hold a funeral,” said Natalia, who added she and her daughter were now in Moldova thanks to The Fellowship’s efforts.

“It saved us from hell and now it will help us get to Israel. Sergei and I got married in a civil wedding and we never registered our marriage or our joint daughter.”

Boltinsky is apparently the second Israeli national to be killed in Ukraine after Roman Brodsky, a 42-years-old Israeli national was killed over two months ago while trying to flee to Moldova by a Ukrainian militia who mistook him for a Russian combatant.