It took place near the historic Babi Yar ravine, which had been the site of the mass murder of more than 100,000 Jews and other civilians during World War II.

The slide immediately hit the lower-lying Kurenivka neighbourhood, reaching a residential area, a tram depot, several industrial buildings and a cemetery, as well as traffic moving along the streets.

To cover up the scale of the disaster, people who died were buried in different cemeteries in the city and nearby towns, with different dates and reasons for their deaths written in government records.

[3][better source needed] Construction engineers and managers responsible for the dam's design and maintenance were accused of negligence by the authorities, and subsequently convicted.

[citation needed] In 1962 Ukrainian Communist Party leaders ordered the leveling of the Babi Yar ravine and the establishment of a park on the site where at least 33,000 Jews from Kyiv and the surrounding area had been murdered in 1941 by the Einsatzgruppen.