Rabbi Gris is currently in Germany, where she has continued to lead services via Zoom for people in Ukraine and those who have been displaced abroad.
widely accused of war crimes, Rabbi Gris referred to the Torah, the first part of the Hebrew bible.
The faith leader, 45, is a Russian citizen but lived in Odessa for the past 22 years and had adopted Ukraine as her homeland. Ordained a rabbi at Leo Baeck College in London, where she has friends and colleagues who are supporting her, she now plans to move to the UK with a sponsored visa through the British government’s humanitarian pathway for those fleeing the war.
‘I will try to get a new life and find a new congregation to lead, probably in the UK, because I left everything behind in Ukraine.Rabbi Gris spoke as a UK intelligence update showed Russian forces were attempting to circumvent the city of Mykolaiv, 75 miles to the east, on a drive towards the heavily fortified seaport.
People in Odessa learn how to handle weapons in anticipation of the Russian invasion reaching the coastal city ‘The situation really shows the kind of people we have around us in Ukraine, I have never seen the country so united and I am really proud of how the people are helping each other. The Jewish communities have been active in all the cities across Ukraine, for all people, to organise evacuation transport and provide material and financial aid.