Fearing the Russian bear: Brotherhood supports Ukraine

On the morning of Thursday, February 24, Russia launched a comprehensive military operation in Ukrainian territory shortly after an announcement by President Vladimir Putin. According to Ukrainian border guards, Russian forces managed to enter the Kyiv region from Belarus to carry out an attack with Grad missiles on military targets.

In a later turn of these events, the Brotherhood in Ukraine did not miss the opportunity to consolidate its connection with Ukrainian society. The chairman of the Council of Muslims of Ukraine, Seyran Arifov, came out in a video clip in which he talked about the crisis of the Russian military build-up on the country's borders and the position of the Council and Muslims regarding this escalation.

Arifov stressed that the Council of Ukrainian Muslims is following with concern the developments of the current escalation and the great challenges it has created, declaring the council's support for Ukraine in defense of its unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, while condemning all manifestations of Russian intimidation and aggression.

Arifov said that Russia's military means are aimed at destroying the infrastructure and the political, economic and social foundations on which Ukraine is based as an independent state, as well as at weakening its citizens and dissuading them from realizing their aspirations as a free people.

“On behalf of the Council of Ukrainian Muslims, I call on the Ukrainian nation and governmental and civil institutions to unite and renounce differences in the face of common threats and fears that affect everyone, without responding to provocations and misleading campaigns, and without any manifestations of trepidation and panic, which harm and do not benefit,” he stated.

Arifov stressed that the Muslims of Ukraine are committed to their national duties such as their adherence to rights, including the protection of freedoms enjoyed by the people of Ukraine, and he called on the Muslims of Russia to play positive roles by peaceful means to prevent any armed aggression in order to avoid civilian and innocent victims.

Enmity against Putin

The Kyiv Brotherhood’s position on the Russian attacks on Ukraine comes within the framework of the group’s hostility to Russia, which had declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group, as Moscow considers the Brotherhood to be the hatchery of al-Qaeda, which has always been an enemy of the Russians.

The Brotherhood's position comes within the framework of fueling the dispute between the Crimean Tatars and the Russian bear, which imposed its control over the Crimean peninsula, in an attempt to avoid the escalation of Russian influence in the region.

The Brotherhood seeks to consolidate its relationship with the Ukrainian people, as these Brotherhood positions are not in reality to support the Ukrainian state but essentially out of fear of Russian power.

Fragile existence

The Brotherhood’s positioning in Ukraine is due to a number of specific factors, the most important of which is the political turmoil and separatist strife destroying the country. After Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union and its declaration of an independent state in 1991, the newly separated country split into two contradictory currents, which the first yearning for the past and cheering the prosperity of the Russian Federation, while the other calls for European freedom.