The Security Service of Ukraine, the law enforcement agency better known as the SBU, said on Aug. 6 that it has detained a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization in a joint operation with the police in Kyiv.
The detainee, an unidentified national of an unspecified Central Asian country, is wanted by Interpol. According to the SBU, she recruited mercenaries in her home country to take part in armed conflicts in Syria. She allegedly obtained a Ukrainian permanent residence permit after submitting knowingly false information in order to avoid liability in her homeland.
The woman will be extradited. This is not the first time that an Islamic State member has been found in Ukraine.
On Feb. 11, the SBU uncovered an Islamic State terrorist cell in Kyiv with an unknown number of members. The cell was reportedly propagating Islamic State narratives by spreading extremist religious content. Among items confiscated from the cell were explosives, one grenade, eight grenade launcher rounds, some cash and credit cards, as well as documents tracking financial transfers to Syria.
In May 2020, Ukraine had extradited a Georgian national detained six months earlier to Georgia. Al-Bara Shishani, a top commander of the terrorist organization, was described by the Pentagon as the Islamic State’s “minister of war” and was wanted by Interpol.
In July 2020, two foreigners who sent mercenaries to the Islamic State through Ukraine had been sentenced to ten years in prison.
The convicted had set up a transfer point of mercenaries to the Islamic State in Kharkiv Oblast. From 2013-2015, the culprits helped IS members transit through Ukraine to Syria and Iraq to take part in the hostilities on the side of the organization, providing them with finances, housing, and fake travel documents.
