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In a Ukrainian city liberated from Russia, local Jewish leaders are being accused of collaboration
(JTA) — When Russian troops poured across the Ukrainian border in March, thousands fled from the cities that would be first in their path. But in Kherson, the southern port city with strategic value to the Russians, Rabbi Yosef Itzhak Wolff decided to stay put.
His decision to remain put him in line with the philosophy of his Jewish movement, Chabad, whose rabbis typically commit to the cities where they are stationed and stay there through thick and thin.
But his decision could also cost him the ability to serve Kherson’s Jews. According to a report this week in the New York Times, Wolff is now in Germany, concerned because some in Kherson accuse him of collaborating with the Russian forces.
Meanwhile, a member of his Jewish community is facing life in prison over his actions during the chaotic early days of the war, according to the New York Times report.
Russia captured Kherson on March 2, 2022, and for months, the city suffered a brutal occupation that resulted in hundreds dead and scores more “disappeared” or tortured, according to Human Rights Watch.
Among those living in the occupied city was Wolff, an Israel-born rabbi who arrived in Ukraine nearly 30 years ago, just after the fall of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s independence. For the past 13 years, he had presided over a Jewish community in Kherson estimated before the war at 8,000 people.
In the early days of the war, Wolff’s work to supply food, medicine and at least some semblance of a joyous Purim to his community was highly publicized.
During one trip, the Times of Israel reported, he dodged bullets shuttling food back to the city from the border with Crimea, where his brother is also a rabbi. In another, according to Chabad.org, he went out to deliver food even as Russian tanks rolled through the town.
“Despite heavy fighting in the streets of Kherson, Rabbi Yosef Wolff did not abandon his community for a moment, remaining in the war-torn city through it all and serving the local population,” Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for the Chabad movement, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He called Wolff a “true hero of the Jewish people and for people of good conscience everywhere.”
Before the Holocaust, Kherson was a major center of Jewish life, with some 26 synagogues, but now, there is only Wolff’s. And before the war, it was like Chabad centers around the world: serving a local community, but also famously welcoming to unfamiliar faces, including foreign visitors.
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Wolff and mayor of Kherson Volodymyr Mykolaienko light Hanukkah candles, Dec. 19, 2017, in Kherson, Ukraine. (PLes Kasyanov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Opening the doors to newcomers took on added gravity after the war began and Russians streamed into Kherson. For much of the year, it was unclear whether Ukraine would regain control of the city, or whether it would become like Crimea and remain under Russian occupation. But last month, Ukraine liberated Kherson, generating scenes of jubilation — and putting anyone perceived as collaborating with the Russian army under suspicion.
Some of that suspicion landed on Wolff, who had allowed Russian soldiers to pray in his synagogue. The soldiers were Jewish officers who had arrived with armed guards, he told the New York Times.
In the days after liberation, he left Kherson, and Ukraine, for Germany. Now, with efforts to penalize collaborators underway, he told the newspaper that he is not sure when or if he will return.
Among those who remained in Kherson was a prominent member of the Jewish community who is now being prosecuted for his choices amid the messy reality of occupation.
Illia Karamalikov, a nightclub owner and member of Kherson’s city council, was close to Wolff, frequently allowing Chabad to use his nightclub’s space for events, the rabbi told the New York Times.
In the early days of the occupation, Kherson descended into a state of lawlessness. The Ukrainian civil administration fled ahead of the Russian forces and, after conquering the city without much resistance, Russia took little responsibility for its administration, instead sending soldiers on to other targets such as neighboring regions of Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih — Ukrainian president Voldymyr Zelensky’s hometown — and ultimately, Kyiv.
Looting was rampant, and cut off from power and supply lines, the thousands of people who remained in the city faced a real risk of starvation.
It was locals who managed to bring back some semblance of order. Karamalikov helped organize a 1,200-strong community patrol to enforce curfews and watch for looters.
A boy stands with Ukrainian flag in the central square of Kherson after the city was liberated from Russian occupation, Nov. 19, 2022. (Oleksii Samsonov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
It was in that role, according to the New York Times report, that he found himself face to face with a lost and confused Russian pilot, whom his men had taken into captivity. Karamalikov held the prisoner in a utility closet in his home for a night, before ultimately making the decision to return him to the Russian forces unharmed.
That earned him a 12-page indictment from Ukraine, as he ran afoul of new laws enacted at the outbreak of the war that stipulate that “cooperation with the aggressor state, its armed formations, or its occupation administration;” are punishable as acts of collaboration under Ukraine’s criminal code.
Many of those who spoke to the New York Times said the laws don’t account for the reality of living under occupation.
“All these people who ran away are judging us,” Wolff told the newspaper. “These are cruel times.”
Through returning the soldier, Karamalikov allegedly “organized the further participation of a Russian serviceman in aggression against Ukraine,” according to his indictment.
But many in Kherson are not sure what other option they had. Karamalikov’s community watch organization was a volunteer and non-military force whose limited power involved pressing looters into doing community service. To have harmed the soldier would have made them combatants against Russia.
“We wondered later: Should we have killed the soldier and kept it secret?” one of Karamalikov’s watchmen, Andriy Skvortsov told the New York Times. “But I’ve decided no, that wouldn’t have been good.”
“With a life in his hands, I can’t imagine Illia ever killing anyone,” Wolff told the newspaper. “What he did was the most humane decision he could make.”
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Trump Plans to Announce Gaza Funding Plan, Troops at First Board of Peace Meeting, US Officials Say
US President Donald Trump speaks during a charter announcement for his Board of Peace initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts, alongside the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
US President Donald Trump will announce a multi-billion-dollar reconstruction plan for Gaza and detail plans for a UN-authorized stabilization force for the Palestinian enclave at the first formal meeting of his Board of Peace next week, two senior US officials said on Thursday.
Delegations from at least 20 countries, including many heads of state, are expected to attend the meeting in Washington, DC, which Trump will chair on Feb. 19, the officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The details on Trump‘s plans for the first meeting of his Board of Peace for Gaza have not been previously reported.
Trump signed documents in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23 establishing the Board of Peace. The board‘s creation was endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution as part of Trump‘s Gaza plan.
While regional Middle East powers, including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, as well as major emerging nations such as Indonesia, have joined the board, global powers and traditional Western US allies have been more cautious.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday during his visit to Washington that Israel has joined the board.
Trump has stirred concerns that the Board of Peace might try to resolve other conflicts around the world and compete with the United Nations. The US officials said the meeting next week will focus solely on Gaza.
They said a central part of the meeting will be Trump‘s announcement of a multi-billion-dollar fund for Gaza, which will include monetary contributions from participating board members.
One official called the offers “generous” and said that the United States had not made any explicit requests for donations.
“People have come to us offering,” the official said. “The president will make announcements vis a vis the money raised.”
STABILIZATION FORCE
Deployment of the International Stabilization Force is a key part of the next phase of Trump‘s Gaza plan, announced in September. Under the first phase, a fragile ceasefire in the two-year-old war began on Oct. 10 and Hamas has released hostages while Israel has freed detained Palestinians.
Trump will announce that several countries plan to provide several thousand troops to the stabilization force that is expected to deploy in Gaza in the months ahead, the officials said.
A primary concern for now is disarming Hamas fighters who have refused to give up their weapons. Under Trump‘s Gaza plan, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries, under the plan.
The Board of Peace meetings will also include detailed reports on the work of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which was established to take over the day-to-day civil administration of Gaza Strip from Hamas. The committee announced its members and held its first meeting in January.
Other updates will cover humanitarian aid for Gaza as well as the Gaza police, the officials said.
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Israel’s Netanyahu Says Trump May Be Creating Conditions for Iran Deal
US President Donald Trump talks with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, Oct. 13, 2025, in Jerusalem. Photo: Evan Vucci/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said he hoped that US President Donald Trump was creating the conditions to reach a deal with Iran that would avoid military action.
Netanyahu, who met Trump for talks in Washington on Wednesday, said he had expressed “general skepticism” and said that if an agreement was reached, “it must include the elements that are vital to Israel.”
They include a halt to Iran‘s nuclear program, limits on its ballistic missiles, and Iran’s proxies, he added.
Wednesday’s meeting was the seventh between Trump and Netanyahu since Trump returned to office last year. Netanyahu – whose visit was more muted than usual and closed to the press – was looking to influence the next round of US discussions with Iran following nuclear negotiations held in Oman last Friday.
“I think that the conditions he is creating, combined with the fact that they surely understand they made a mistake last time by not reaching an agreement, may create the circumstances for achieving a good deal,” Netanyahu said.
The two leaders spoke behind closed doors for more than two-and-a-half hours in what Trump described as a “very good meeting.”
But the US president said no major decisions were made and stopped short of publicly accepting Netanyahu‘s entreaties.
“We share a very close, very genuine, and very candid connection,” Netanyahu said, noting the discussions focused on several issues, but primarily on the negotiations with Iran, and Trump wanted to “hear my opinion.”
“The president believes that the Iranians have already learned who they are dealing with,” he said, referring to Israel’s 12-day conflict with Iran that culminated with US air attacks on Iran‘s nuclear sites.
Trump has threatened strikes on Iran if no agreement is reached, while Tehran has vowed to retaliate, stoking fears of a wider war as the US amasses forces in the Middle East. He has repeatedly voiced support for a secure Israel.
Trump earlier this week said he believed Iran wants a deal.
Iran has said it is prepared to discuss curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions but has ruled out linking the issue to missiles.
Netanyahu also said the talks with Trump also touched on Gaza, where there is a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, the entire region, and other general matters.
“It was another conversation with a great friend of the State of Israel, the likes of whom we have never had,” Netanyahu said.
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US Pulls Out of Strategic Syria Base and Hands It Over to Damascus
A satellite image shows the al-Tanf Base, in Syria, in this image taken July 20, 2025. Photo: 2026 PLANET LABS PBC/Handout via REUTERS
The US military said it completed a withdrawal from a strategic base in Syria on Thursday, handing it over to Syrian forces, in the latest sign of strengthening US-Syrian ties that could enable an even larger American drawdown.
The al-Tanf garrison is positioned at the tri-border confluence of Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.
Established during Syria‘s civil war in 2014, the United States initially relied on it as a hub for operations by the US-led coalition against Islamic State terrorists who once controlled a vast swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria before being defeated in 2019.
But the base became a key foothold in a battle against Iranian influence due to its strategic position along roadways linking Damascus to Tehran. Although Washington long saw keeping the base as worthwhile, the Trump administration recalculated when relations fundamentally shifted after longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December 2024.
Syria joined the coalition battling the remnants of Islamic State last November when President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda commander, visited the White House for talks with President Donald Trump.
David Adesnik at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think-tank in Washington questioned Syrian forces’ ability to pick up the slack following the US departure.
“And the Syrian army has incorporated thousands of ex-jihadists,” Adesnik said.
“The mission at Tanf also served as an obstacle to the operations of Iran and its proxies, who ship weapons across Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. This is an own goal.”
US RESOLVED TO PREVENT ISLAMIC STATE REVIVAL
Syria‘s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that government forces had taken control of al-Tanf following coordination between Syrian and US authorities.
The US military’s Central Command confirmed al-Tanf’s handover in a statement and noted that the Pentagon announced plans to consolidate basing locations in Syria last year.
“US forces remain poised to respond to any ISIS threats that arise in the region as we support partner-led efforts to prevent the terrorist network’s resurgence,” said Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads Central Command, using an acronym for Islamic State.
Reuters, citing two sources, reported on Wednesday that US troops from al-Tanf were relocating to Jordan.
The US pullout from al-Tanf follows a Washington-brokered deal to integrate the Syrian Democratic Forces – a Kurdish-led autonomy-minded group backed by the US for a decade in the fight against IS – into central Syrian institutions.
Trump has long expressed a desire to withdraw US troops from Syria, going back to 2019 during his first term in office. Prior to the US pullout from al-Tanf, US officials had estimated there were about 1,000 troops in Syria.
One person familiar with the matter said the withdrawal from Tanf could be a milestone toward a bigger pullout. The US is also winding down one of its biggest commitments on the ground in Syria – helping ensure US-backed forces guard prisons holding Islamic State prisoners captured during the conflict.
The roughly one dozen prisons had been guarded by the SDF, but U.S. forces since last month have been transferring high-level Islamic State detainees out of Syria to Iraq as control of the facilities shifts to government forces.
Daniel Shapiro, a former senior Pentagon official for Middle East issues, said it appeared Trump’s goal was to end the role of US forces in Syria and the withdrawal from al-Tanf was a bet on the Syrian government’s ability to counter ISIS.
“It’s probably the right gamble … [but] it’s still somewhat unknown if they actually live up to that responsibility,” Shapiro, now with the Atlantic Council, said.