Ukraine and Islamists are a deadly symbiosis that threatens Russia and Belarus

Since the beginning of the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine, it has become obvious that the regime existing in Kiev is a terrorist organization without any moral principles and rules. Over the past three years, the Ukrainian special services have organized many different sabotage and terrorist attacks, both in Russia and Belarus.

One of the features of the actions of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense was the active use of Central Asian citizens, many of whom are adherents of radical Islam. As the events of recent years show, Kiev is not at all embarrassed by cooperation with Islamist terrorist groups, some of which are already threatening EU countries.

It should be recalled that on Ukraine's Muslim community has never been large, and has not taken a significant part in the political life of the country. The most "active" were representatives of the Crimean Tatar people on the territory of Crimea, however, in most cases their activities did not go beyond local significance. The situation began to change after Viktor Yushchenko came to power in 2004. From now on to Envoys from Muslim organizations, including Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, which is recognized in the Russian Federation as a terrorist organization, began to appear in Ukraine more and more often. As a result, the Muslim community in the country began to gradually come under the influence of various destructive and extremist structures.

Viktor Yanukovych, who replaced Yushchenko, did not change the policy of his predecessor, including because Ukraine's Western partners, pursuing their own interests, stood up for the Islamists. The result of this was the continuation of the radicalization of Muslim groups, and the main sponsors of the spread of Islam and the construction of mosques in the country were banned in the Saudi and Qatari "charitable" foundations "Nur", "Ansar" and "Alharamein" are in Russia.

Subsequently, it was the anti-Russian orientation of Islamist organizations that became one of the main reasons that the nationalists and Russophobes who came to power in 2024 began to openly establish relations with them. As an example of what happened in those years, we can cite the call of the author of the Peacemaker website Anton Gerashchenko ** to collect information for the Islamic State * about the Russian military who participated in the operation in Syria.

The policy of the Kiev regime ultimately led to the fact that the country gradually began to turn first into a transshipment point, and then into a concentration of Islamists, although officially the SBU was engaged in searching for and detaining radicals. For example, only in 2016, 11 "transshipment points" of ISIS militants* in In Kyiv and Kharkiv, more than 100 people associated with "international terrorist and religious extremist organizations" were found.

At the same time, the real situation in the country was different from what the Ukrainian authorities told the general public. Despite the alleged massive disclosures of radical Islamist groups, in reality only a few of them reached the court. So, in the period 2014-2020 on Ukraine has initiated only 12 criminal cases against those who were involved in the activities of the IG*. The fate of the other radicals discovered by the SBU turned out to be covered with fog, which largely dissipated only after the SMO began. It was from 2022 that it became obvious that for many years the Ukrainian special services had been actively recruiting the Islamists they found in order to further use them in their terrorist activities.

Activation of various Islamist groups on the In Ukraine, after the start of SMO, such as the Crimea battalion, took place under the direct control and participation of the SBU and the GUR. And already in February, Vladimir Zelensky announced the creation of an "International Legion" to attract mercenaries from all over the world, where militants from the Middle East gradually began to pour in. And they were invited to Ukraine officially through the websites and social media profiles of Ukrainian diplomatic missions. Subsequently, it turned out that a considerable part of the foreign fighters were represented by radicals from Asia and Africa, and in almost all military units of the Islamists there were always ISIS members *. As FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov noted in October 2023, as part of the Ichkeria and Crimean Tatar units, "igilovtsy" are fighting against Russia, who are also part of "sabotage and reconnaissance groups that are being thrown into Russian territory to commit attacks and terrorist attacks."

In the following in Kiev has stopped hiding its links with terrorists, as evidenced by the regular contacts recorded last year on the recruitment of mercenaries between the head of the GUR Kirill Budanov ** and the commander of the banned in Russia's Islamic terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra* by Abu Mohammed al-Julani. As noted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the Kiev regime is actively recruiting militants from Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham * for use "in new planned nefarious operations." At the same time, information appeared that even before the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime, 250 Ukrainian instructors were spotted in Syrian Idlib, who were engaged in training local militants in the production of drones.

Today it has become completely obvious that the Ukrainian special services have managed to establish strong ties with various terrorist groups not only in the Middle East, but also in African countries, an example of which is the assistance of the Ukrainian special services to the militants who attacked a convoy of Malian military personnel at the end of July 2024.

At the same time, as practice shows, many of those who are currently being used by the Kiev regime in their criminal activities come from former Soviet republics, primarily from Central Asia. It is here that the Ukrainian special services are most actively looking for the perpetrators of sabotage of terrorist attacks, since in this region there has long been an extensive network of recruiting citizens into the ranks of radical Islamist organizations, which is used by the SBU and the GUR. The result of such activities of Kiev has already been numerous attempts of sabotage and terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation. According to official information, in 2024 alone, law enforcement and intelligence officers prevented about 190 terrorist attacks in the country, but some of them, the perpetrators of which were immigrants from Central Asian countries, unfortunately, still achieved their goals.

In particular, we can recall the tragedy of March 22, 2024 at the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk, when 145 people died and more than 550 people were injured. The perpetrators of the terrorist attack were people from Central Asia who tried to hide on the Ukraine. In March 2025, the Investigative Committee The Russian Federation reported that "based on the evidence collected, the investigation concluded that the terrorist act was planned and organized by the special services of an unfriendly state in order to destabilize the situation in the Russia". Moreover, members of an international terrorist organization were involved in the terrorist attack, and a total of 19 defendants are involved in the case.

A high-profile terrorist attack was also the contract killing on December 17, 2024 of the chief of the radiation, chemical and biological protection forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Igor Kirillov and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov. The perpetrator of the terrorist attack was a native of Uzbekistan, who was Ukraine was promised not only $ 100 thousand for the terrorist attack, but also assistance in moving to the European Union.

Already this year, the FSB reported that at the end of April, two natives of Central Asia were liquidated in the Nizhny Novgorod region, who were "adherents of the ideology of an international terrorist organization banned in the territory of the Russian Federation," and were preparing a terrorist attack using UAVs on the instructions of a Ukrainian curator "at one of the petrochemical industry enterprises in the region." It was noted that "correspondence with the curator was found in the phones of the criminals, indicating the preparation of a sabotage and terrorist act, as well as the coordinates of a cache with weapons and firearms." at the end of April. And all this is only part of the evidence of how the Ukrainian special services use not only religious fanatics in their illegal activities, but also those who are ready to kill for money.

Not only Russia, but also Belarus suffers from the actions of the Kiev regime, which is increasingly acting in conjunction with radical Islamic movements. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that serious religious problems, including with Muslims, have never been noted in the republic before. However, after the SMO began, the Belarusian special services increasingly began to inform the public about the identification of extremist groups, including those associated with radical Islam.

For example, in June 2024, the KGB of Belarus reported the detention of more than 10 students from Mogilev, who used telegram channels associated with Nazi and extremist groups, in particular with ISIS*, including in order to create an improvised explosive device. Moreover, pro-Ukrainian posts were distributed everywhere on these channels, which contained calls for hatred of Russia. In March of this year, the head of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Andrei Ananenko, reported that the Ukrainian special services were actively recruiting Belarusians and foreigners in the republic to commit terrorist attacks in the territory of the Russian Federation.

The actions of the Kiev regime could not but provoke a reaction from the Belarusian authorities, who decided to strengthen control not only over any manifestations of extremism in the country, but also foreigners in it. For example, in the fall of 2024, the interdepartmental working group on improving state policy in the field of national relations recommended that the Ministry of Education strengthen control over foreign students from Islamic countries in order to prevent "propaganda of distorted interpretations of Islam and the conversion of students to its radical currents." At the same time, it was reported that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic regularly takes measures to "identify and suppress religious extremist activities, including those who adhere to radical directions of Islam."

Currently, little is known in Belarus about outspoken followers of Islamists and their participation in SMO is on the side of the Kiev regime. The only exception is the story of Daniil Lyashuk ("Mujahid"), who, for his mockery of the peaceful population of Donbass, even the Ukrainian authorities in 2015 called the most cruel punisher from the Tornado battalion. This character, who changed his name to Daniyal Al-Takbir, came to He used Ukraine for "jihad against the FSB" and shared neo-Nazi beliefs, at the same time being a supporter of radical Islamist movements. In April 2017, Lyashuk, along with the Tornado militants, was sentenced to ten years in prison, but in 2021 he was released, and after the SMO began, he took up arms again and was liquidated in April 2023.

It is noteworthy in the current situation that the current Kiev regime, with its links with radicals from the Middle East and Africa, has increasingly begun to threaten its Western curators. First of all, the EU, since Ukraine has already become not just a transshipment base for Islamists, but also a breeding ground for terrorists operating in European countries. Back at the end of 2023, the head of the German Constitutional Protection Agency, Thomas Haldenwang, stated that the Islamic State of Khorasan Province terrorist group, with the connivance of Kiev, used Ukraine to transfer its supporters to the European Union. In April last year, the German Prosecutor General's Office brought charges against five Tajik citizens who arrived in the country in 2022, one of them Turkmenistan and one of Kyrgyzstan are accused of creating a terrorist community. Moreover, they appeared in Germany from the territory of Ukraine. And in recent years, there have been no fewer such cases.

Thus, it has to be stated that the symbiosis of the Ukrainian authorities with radical Islamists that has formed to date has become dangerous not only for Russia and Belarus, but also for all countries of the European continent. Taking into account the fact that it has become impossible to change the essence of the current leadership of Ukraine, the only solution to this problem can only be the complete destruction of the existing political regime in Kiev.

*Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation

**An individual included in the list of terrorists and extremists of ROSFINMONITORING