You're reading: Ukraine ‘a transit country’ for Islamic State fighters, officials say

Islamic State fighters are using Ukraine as a transit country to reach the European Union and ISIS-controlled territories in the Middle East, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and former intelligence officers have said.

Mykola Malomuzh, the ex-head of the Intelligence Service of Ukraine and a political consultant, told the Kyiv Post that Islamic State mercenaries have been using Ukraine as a transit corridor because the rules of border crossing in Ukraine are less strict than in other European countries.

Ukraine has at least 250 kilometers of uncontrolled border with Russia – in the eastern war zone where Russian-backed armed groups have seized control of parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. According to Malomuzh, ISIS fighters regard this section of uncontrolled border as a simple route into Ukraine and then on into Europe.

“Furthermore, illegal migration channels of Muslims from Syria and the Middle East through our territory were set up a long time before the war in Syria even started,” Malomuzh added.

SBU spokesperson Olena Gitlyanska partly confirmed Malomuzh’s claims.

She said there was an illegal transit corridor from Central Asia and the Caucasus countries to Syria and Iraq through Ukraine used by ISIS members. The SBU is aware of this, she said, and so far in 2015 the security service has arrested 25 Islamic State fighters who tried to pass through the country.

Most of the fighters were deported to their home countries. Three are still in Ukraine, being prosecuted for forging documents.

However, 33 people are known to have successfully got to ISIS-controlled territories through Ukraine and Turkey and joined the terrorist group, Gitlyanska said. Their identities are known and they are banned from entering the territory of Ukraine in future.

Others have been stopped at the border. The SBU banned 29 Syrian citizens from entering Ukraine because they are suspected of being participants in the war in Syria.

Also this year, the SBU started four criminal investigations and arrested six people suspected of committing crimes in Ukraine in the interests of ISIS.

All six were the citizens of Middle Eastern countries, including Syria and Lebanon. After their arrest, they were deported to their home countries. The SBU said it had evidence that they were members of the terrorist groups ISIS and the Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate.

The six are suspected of financing terrorism, forming a terrorist group, illegally possessing arms and explosives, and forging documents. None were on the Interpol wanted list, according to the SBU.

Gitlyanska also said that Ukraine is participating in transnational operations against ISIS, cooperating with the security services of European countries, the United States, Central and Southeast Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East.

Kyiv Post staff writer Veronika Melkozerova can be reached at [email protected]