A Islamic State terror cell was uncovered in Kyiv, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Feb. 11.
An unknown number of suspects were arrested. Law enforcement conducted nine searches and confiscated explosives, one grenade, eight grenade launcher rounds, some foreign currency and credit cards, as well as documents tracking financial transfers to Syria.
The SBU also found symbols of the Islamic State and extremist religious literature, written by a man who was linked to recruiting people to the terrorist group.
Police also discovered documented correspondence between members of the cell and Islamic State militants abroad. The Ukrainian cell members discussed going back to Syria and returning to combat.
Members of the cell forged Ukrainian and Russian passports to legalize the presence of several people from the Middle East and Central Asia in Ukraine. Some of these people are active militants of the Islamic State, SBU believes.
The cell members were supposed to cool their heels in Ukraine for a while after committing crimes in Syria, SBU says.
But terrorism expert Aleks Korenkov, head of the International Center for Security Studies, thinks the threat is bigger than it seems.
If the group was planning to quietly hide in Kyiv, they would change their appearance to blend in better among Eastern Europeans, Korenkov wrote on his Facebook page.
According to the SBU, the cell members were actively propagating Islamic State narratives by spreading extremist religious content.
A flag discovered in the cell’s possession had been used for videos filmed prior to past terror attacks.
“I don’t want to spread panic, but judging by today’s arrest, the threat of the Islamic State in Ukraine has evolved to a new level,” Korenkov said.
The cell’s leader is wanted in one of the Middle Eastern countries for participating in the Syrian civil war.
In 2019, he used fake documents to enter Ukraine, the SBU alleged. He then found a group of like-minded individuals, all foreigners, who ended up coming together into an Islamic State unit, the SBU said in a statement.
All cell members now face 8 to 15 years in prison.
Last year in Kyiv, the SBU arrested a notorious Islamic State warlord who participated in bloodshed in Syria and Iraq, recruited foreigners and orchestrated terrorist attacks
He also created a cell in Ukraine while leading terrorist cells abroad.
Ukraine is a safe location for the Islamic State militants, experts say.
Unlike Georgia and Turkey, who’ve recently augmented their anti-terrorist operations, Ukraine does not see the Islamic State as a threat.
Since Russia waged war on Ukraine in 2014, the country has been preoccupied with holding off Russian-backed militant attacks and hasn’t focused on the possible threats from the Islamic State, former SBU’s Deputy Chairman Viktor Yagun told media outlet Zaborona in 2020.
Yagun estimates that hundreds of Islamic State associates currently reside in Ukraine.
They come to Ukraine for its relatively large Muslim community of over a million, to which Ukrainian society is generally tolerant. Most Muslims speak Russian, which is helpful to citizens of post-Soviet states since various Russian accents don’t stand out here very much.
Ukraine’s rampant corruption is also an advantage for Islamic State members who come with money, according to Yagun. It’s quite easy to go undercover or quietly treat gunshot wounds, if they know whom to pay.
“Islamic terrorism is not typical for our country.” Yagun said. “So the Ukrainian special services don’t really focus on it.”
