On January 22, 2014, a member of the leadership of the united opposition of Ukraine, Mikhail Livinskiy, made a proposal to VAAD Ukraine Chairman Josef Zisels to organize a patrol and guards for the Kyiv synagogues by Maidan’s self-defense forces. The synagogue defense program is to be coordinated by a deputy of the Ukrainian parliament.

Josef Zisels passed these proposals on to two Kyiv synagogues, including the Podil synagogue, and two one of the all-Ukrainian Jewish organizations that had been planning a mourning ceremony on January 28, the international Holocaust Memorial Day, at a third Kyiv synagogue.