The Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine on August 21, 2026, reported on the participation of Rabbi Yakov Sinyakov in an event marking the third anniversary of the 7th Rapid Reaction Corps of the Air Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The event itself took place earlier — on July 17, 2026, in Dnipro. The date is not accidental: the command of the 7th Corps was established on July 17, 2023.
For a reader in Israel, the name of the corps commander or the number of the Ukrainian military unit may not mean much by themselves. However, the presence of Sinyakov changes the perspective. Before us is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi who did not come to the military as an honorary guest: he serves within this structure and heads its chaplaincy.
Sinyakov’s story speaks to a broader issue that is not always visible from Israel. Ukrainian Jews, along with other citizens of the country, found themselves inside the war against Russian aggression — some serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, some work as volunteers, helping the wounded and military families, some support the fighters as a rabbi or chaplain. Therefore, Sinyakov in the uniform of the 7th Corps is not an exotic detail of the ceremony. It is one example of how the Jewish community of Ukraine defends the country together with the entire Ukrainian society from the war started by Putin’s Russia.
Anton Pshedynsky writes for NANews – News of Israel about international security, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and how Ukrainian events intersect with the Israeli agenda. In this story, such an intersection is literally in one frame: Ukrainian paratroopers, the war in the east of the country, and a rabbi representing the Jewish community of Ukraine.
7th Air Assault Corps: three years from headquarters to battles for Pokrovsk
Air Assault Forces of Ukraine, a separate branch of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The corps is a larger structure that unites several combat units and provides unified command over them.
A direct parallel with the IDF should not be drawn here: the structure of the two armies differs. But the principle is understandable to the Israeli reader. This is the level at which separate brigades, artillery, reconnaissance, unmanned systems, communications, and logistics must work not each on its own, but as a single mechanism.
In three years, the 7th Corps has come a fairly rapid way. Its command was created in the summer of 2023, when the Ukrainian army was already living in a state of large-scale war. In 2024, it operated in the Vuhledar and Kurakhove directions. In the first half of 2025 — in the Novopavlovsk and part of the Pokrovsk direction.
Since July 2025, one of the key areas for the corps has been Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.
This is important to explain separately. For a person who follows the war from Israel only through major headlines, Pokrovsk may look like another point on the map of Donbas. In fact, the area of the city has long remained one of the directions where Russia tries to advance at the cost of constant attacks and large resources.
At the anniversary, the corps commander, Brigadier General Yevhen Lasyichuk, summed up the past year. Dozens of servicemen received state and departmental awards, and the corps units were separately noted for their combat work.
Lasyichuk is a Hero of Ukraine. Before being appointed corps commander, he headed the 25th Separate Airborne Sicheslav Brigade and has been fighting against Russia since 2014.
The motto of the anniversary itself was in Ukrainian: «Робимо вітер» — «We make the wind».
Not the most headquarters-like formulation. But it quite accurately coincides with the image the corps is trying to build around itself.
FPV drones, robots, and “technodesant”
The 7th Corps uses its own concept — “technodesant”.
Behind it is not some separate new branch of the military. It’s about something else: airborne units are trying to integrate FPV drones, ground robotic systems, digital control systems, electronic warfare, and their own technical developments into regular combat work more quickly.
This is what Lasyichuk calls one of the directions of the corps’ development.
In 2026, an Innovation and Technology Center appeared within the unit. The corps also reported on developments related to the “friend or foe” recognition system, the use of radars, exoskeletons for specific artillery and logistics tasks, and its own digital solutions for combat management.
Here, a topic appears that is understandable to Israel without long explanations.
After October 7, the IDF also faced a war where a cheap drone, a small engineering team, or a quick software update can change the situation faster than the purchase of an expensive platform designed for years.
The Ukrainian experience is not identical to the Israeli one. The scale of the front is different, the enemy is different, the structure of the army is different.
But the problem is very similar: military bureaucracy simply does not have the right to move slower than technology.
Who is Yakov Sinyakov
Against this background, the figure of Yakov Sinyakov looks almost like a contrast.
Next to FPV, robots, and artillery systems — a rabbi.
But within the corps itself, no contradictions are seen here.
Yakov Sinyakov, religious name Yakov Pinchas, is associated with the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine. After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, he traveled to Ukrainian servicemen as a volunteer, bringing aid and providing spiritual support.
In the summer of 2025, he received the official status of a military chaplain of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and later headed the chaplaincy of the 7th Corps.
NANews — News of Israel wrote about the appointment of Yakov Sinyakov back in October 2025. For Ukraine, it was an unusual appointment: an Orthodox Jewish rabbi received a regular role within a regular combat unit.
The very word “chaplain” in the Israeli context can also be easily misunderstood.
In the IDF, there is a Chief Military Rabbinate with a long-established system of religious support for the army. In Ukraine, military chaplaincy in its current form is much younger and has been developing especially rapidly after the Russian invasion.
Sinyakov, meanwhile, works not only with Jewish servicemen.
His work includes conversations with fighters, psychological and spiritual support, helping people after heavy combat episodes, and accompanying servicemen of different religious views.
During Passover, he came directly to the Ukrainian military.
In April 2026, NANews reported how Sinyakov brought everything necessary for Passover to the front line. For a small Jewish community within a multi-million warring country, this perhaps says more than any official formulation about “interfaith dialogue”.
Ukrainian Jews defend the same country they live in
For the Israeli reader, behind the name of the Ukrainian corps and military abbreviations, it is easy to miss the main point. Jews of Ukraine in this war are not bystanders and not a community existing separately from the rest of the country around synagogues, holidays, and humanitarian centers. They are part of Ukrainian society, and the Russian invasion entered their lives just as it did the lives of millions of other Ukrainian citizens.
Ukrainian Jews serve in the army, engage in volunteering, help evacuees and the wounded, support the families of servicemen. The Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine has been conducting extensive humanitarian work since the start of the full-scale war. Yakov Sinyakov shows another side of the same story — the direct presence of the Jewish community within the Ukrainian army.
He is not an invited rabbi who came to the paratroopers for one ceremony. Sinyakov wears the uniform of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, works with servicemen, and heads the chaplaincy of the corps that participates in battles against the Russian army. Therefore, his presence at the third anniversary of the 7th Corps is not a symbolic gesture and not a beautiful photo for a report. For the unit itself, he is one of their own.
This is especially telling against the backdrop of Russian propaganda, which from the first days of the invasion justified the war by the need for some “denazification” of Ukraine. Meanwhile, representatives of the Jewish community of Ukraine themselves serve in the armed forces of the country that Russia allegedly intended to save from this “Nazism”.
This does not mean that all Ukrainian Jews have the same attitude towards the Ukrainian authorities or that the entire community participates in the war. People have different political views, life circumstances, and attitudes towards what is happening — just like in Israel. But a Russian missile or Shahed does not choose a victim by nationality and does not find out their attitude towards the government.
This is the essence of Sinyakov’s story. He remains a rabbi, a Jew, and a representative of his community while serving Ukraine. There is no contradiction here: for some Ukrainian Jews, defending the country and preserving Jewish identity have long become part of one life.
Why this is important specifically for Israel
The message from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine is quite routine: the 7th Corps turned three years old, servicemen received awards, the commander spoke about the development of the unit, and Yakov Sinyakov was among the participants of the ceremony.
But for Israel, the human context of this photograph is important.
Israel often sees Ukraine through the lens of war, relations with Russia, arms supplies, diplomatic disputes, or political statements. Sinyakov’s story shows another Ukraine — one where Jewish life continues not only in the synagogues of Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro. It exists within the army, in units that have been on the front line for months.
Behind the number “7th Corps” today stand the Pokrovsk direction, thousands of servicemen, FPV drones, robotic systems, their own engineering developments — and the chaplaincy headed by an Orthodox Jewish rabbi.
For Ukrainian soldiers, this is no longer a sensation, but part of the everyday reality of war.
And for the Israeli reader, this is perhaps the simplest way to understand the position of Ukrainian Jews today: they are not next to this war. They are inside a country that is at war, and together with other Ukrainians, they defend it from Russian aggression.
Sources: Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine; official materials of the 7th Rapid Reaction Corps of the Air Assault Forces of Ukraine; official materials of the Air Assault Forces of Ukraine.