The Russia-Ukraine war has pushed Ukraine to the brink of a desperate struggle for survival. In their efforts to support the Ukrainian people, many countries deliberately avoid discussing painful and acute topics related to Ukraine, avoiding making them public.
However, genuine help and compassion for Ukraine are not synonymous with censorship and the persecution of truth, whose triumph allows the resolution of the most dramatic problems. Recently, representatives of the Muslim Ummah have unfortunately witnessed a series of tragic incidents that compel us to reflect on the legal protection and social adaptation of Muslims living in Ukraine. After all, they endure the hardships of war alongside Ukrainians and defend the Ukrainian state with arms in hand.
One of the tragic incidents occurred on 31 August in the city of Fastiv in the Kyiv region, where a former Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) serviceman attacked two local businessmen of Azerbaijani origin – a father and son – over a dispute about the price of goods. During the verbal altercation, the Ukrainian insulted the Azerbaijanis, calling them “churki* whom he had protected on the front lines.” He then pulled out a pistol and shot the father and son. As a result, 28-year-old Ismail Rahimov died on the spot, while his father Farman, survived and was hospitalised.
“Churki” is an offensive and derogatory term used by chauvinists as a colloquial designation primarily for people from Central Asia, the Caucasus, and other regions where the majority of the population professes Islam.
At that time, Ukrainian media apparently sought to hush up the scandal by omitting the nationality and religion of the victims. The chief prosecutor of the Kyiv region, during the investigation, hastily declared that the crime was an internal incident unrelated to religious or national enmity. However, the attacker’s insulting phrase towards the father and son before shooting them speaks for itself and refutes the prosecutor’s statement.
Perhaps the failure of Ukrainian media and officials to smooth over the scandal involving the August attack by an AFU serviceman on Azerbaijanis in the Kyiv region explains the publication on 13 October in Kyiv-based city Telegram channels of a video showing three individuals beating an AFU veteran in a wheelchair. The camera angle is positioned such that the attackers’ faces are not visible, but a large Azerbaijani flag taped to the back of one of them is clearly visible. Perhaps the audience was being led to the idea of Azerbaijanis beating a Ukrainian disabled serviceman.
Ethnic and religious enmity in a war-torn country is a prologue to an imminent national catastrophe
But how many people walk the streets with their country’s flag taped to their backs? While watching the video, other strange details stand out. The person filming, despite the obvious illegality of the actions, calmly films the criminal episode from a relatively close distance without fearing consequences. There is no one on the street except the attackers and the veteran. And what was the veteran doing alone in a wheelchair on the street at such a late hour?
Such oddities in the “plot” lead us to suspect that the video may be staged. Even some subscribers of Ukrainian Telegram channels expressed the same opinion in their comments on the posts.
Finally, local police stated that no one had filed a complaint about the beating, and the video is highly likely to be staged. At the same time, the Ukrainian channel “Strana UA”, analysing the scandalous incident, reported that the video was actively disseminated by Kyiv channels that approach editorial policy with extreme caution, excluding from content any hint of external propaganda influence, especially from Russia.
Yet, at first glance, it is Russia that would benefit from hyping a media story around a conflict between Azerbaijanis and Ukrainians. This clarification suggests the role of an influential force in the emergence of these publications. Perhaps financial motivation for the editors or political pressure played a part. It is difficult to say who among Ukrainian political players and state institutions is behind this. However, it is absolutely clear: this dubious material, which tarnishes the honour and dignity of Azerbaijanis, ended up at the top of popular Ukrainian Telegram channels by no means accidentally.
It is possible that the staged video featuring unidentified individuals with an Azerbaijani flag was filmed and then disseminated online to “shift the blame” from the Ukrainian serviceman’s guilt in the attack on Azerbaijani businessmen and, conversely, to create a media picture of Azerbaijanis’ hatred towards Ukrainians. Be that as it may, such actions, instead of objective legal proceedings and a balanced political assessment by the authorities, could provoke a wave of “retaliatory” attacks by Ukrainian citizens on Azerbaijanis and other representatives of the Muslim Ummah, whom many residents in Ukraine, as we have already established, refer to behind their backs as “churki.” Ethnic and religious enmity in a war-torn country is a prologue to an imminent national catastrophe.
If we go beyond covering these scandalous episodes, unfortunately, we cannot fail to acknowledge the chronically severe situation with the protection of the rights of the Muslim community in Ukraine. As early as 2007, Radio Liberty repeatedly raised the issue of the low legal and social integration of Crimean Tatars deported during Stalin’s rule, who, after returning to their historical homeland in Ukrainian Crimea (before 2014), continued to face various forms of discrimination, particularly in the labour market. The unemployment rate among representatives of the Crimean Tatar people exceeded the national average in Ukraine. At the same time, Ukrainian authorities ignored this glaring social problem.
Representatives of Ukraine’s Muslim community also face direct pressure from local law enforcement and special services. For instance, in March 2018, employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) searched the Islamic Cultural Centre in Kyiv. Early in the morning, the operatives arrived at the Centre’s building and, in the absence of its leadership, broke down the doors to the bookstore and gymnasium, then allegedly seized religious books that, in their opinion, promoted a cult of violence and cruelty, as well as national and religious intolerance.
According to the testimony of the head of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine “Ummah”, Mufti Said Ismagilov, surveillance cameras installed at the Islamic Cultural Centre recorded SBU employees bringing a suspicious package and bag into the premises, after which “illegal literature” was discovered precisely in those locations. In his view, the books were deliberately planted by the operatives, which was not difficult in the absence of the Centre’s staff and leaders.
The centuries-long history of bloody tragedies leaves humanity in the 21st century no path other than peaceful coexistence and mutual respect, regardless of faith or nationality
As social tensions in Ukrainian society have increased with the start of the war, discrimination against Muslims has also intensified. In 2022, foreign students and workers, including those of the Muslim faith from African, Asian, and other countries, faced oppression on national and religious grounds. When refugees fleeing the horrors of war crossed the borders of Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary, Ukrainian authorities prioritised their own citizens and treated people from other countries with disdain. They were forced to wait for departure from Ukraine for several days in unheated shelters without hygiene facilities, enduring hardships and hunger. Some were simply mocked, beaten, and sent to the back of the queue; bribes were demanded from others.
Over the past two years, the situation with protecting the rights of the Muslim community in Ukraine has visibly improved. Unfortunately, incidents of murders and beatings of citizens of Islamic faith on ethno-religious grounds, as well as Muslim servicemen serving in the AFU, that leak onto the internet again force us to reconsider the true attitude towards Muslims in Ukraine. Perhaps the illusions of security for Ukrainian Muslims stem from the long-standing practice of legal manipulations used by Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies, which deliberately find no elements of crimes based on religious or national discrimination in such incidents, qualifying the offences as “hooliganism.”
In the current situation, ordinary Ukrainian citizens cannot be blamed. State policy comes first, which aims to eradicate discrimination on religious and national grounds and instils in every citizen a sense of tolerance and respect for all races, peoples, and religions.
Any speculation on this topic is extremely dangerous, but one cannot ignore the problem of the apparent interconnection between the fragile and unprotected position of Ukrainian Muslims and the colossal influence of the Jewish lobby in Ukraine’s political circles and business community. The list of ethnic Jews among the Ukrainian establishment is extensive acting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, head of Zelenskyy’s office Andriy Yermak, former Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, one of the largest Ukrainian businessmen and former head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration Ihor Kolomoisky, and many others who, since Ukraine’s declaration of independence in 1991, have directly or indirectly exerted decisive influence on shaping the political agenda and public sentiment.
After all, it is no coincidence that Kyiv, under the pretext of Israel exercising its right to self-defence, supported the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, where thousands of civilians, including children, the elderly, and women, were killed as a result of indiscriminate IDF bombings. And if biased and discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims come from the highest offices of Ukrainian politics, should we be surprised at the susceptibility of certain segments of Ukrainian citizens to propaganda of intolerance towards the Ummah?
The centuries-long history of bloody tragedies leaves humanity in the 21st century no path other than peaceful coexistence and mutual respect, regardless of faith or nationality. Ukrainians, who have suffered war, should understand this basic truth better than anyone. At the very least, one would like to believe so.