Afghans Ukrainian
Total population
1,682[1]
Languages
Ukrainian, Russian, Pashto, Dari
Related ethnic groups
Pashtuns, Tajiks

Afghans in Ukraine are the country's largest diasporic community with origins outside of the former Soviet Union.

History

During the existence of the Soviet Union, Afghans were the largest foreign group studying in Ukraine. After the resignation of the pro-Soviet president of Afghanistan, Mohammad Najibullah, in 1992, some Afghans in Ukraine applied for asylum.[2] Other Afghans had returned to Afghanistan and served in the security forces during the Afghan Civil War of 1989 to 1992, with some then returning to Ukraine. Some male students married Ukrainian women.[3] Many Afghans in Ukraine live in Kyiv and Dnipro, where some run small businesses that recruit workers from Afghanistan.[2] There is also an Afghan community in Odesa, "made up of successive waves of exiles, refugees, and migrants" as well as commercial traders.[4] This included former DRA General Aslam Watanjar. The 2001 Ukrainian census recorded 1,008 people of Afghan nationality.[5]

In 2019, Ukraine was hosting 1,034 Afghan refugees.[2] At the end of 2020, 1,449 Afghans had permanent residency in Ukraine and 233 had temporary visas.[1]

After the withdrawal of United States and other foreign troops from Afghanistan, in September 2021 the Ukrainian military evacuated Afghans alongside Ukrainian citizens from Afghanistan, now under the control of the Taliban. This followed previous rescue missions that had followed the fall of Kabul on 15 August 2021.[6] In the context of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, TOLOnews reported that there were around 6,000 Afghan refugee in Ukraine, many of whom lacked permission to leave the country.[7]

A number of Afghans in Ukraine have volunteered with both the Pro-Russian separatist militias and the Ukrainian army during the Russo-Ukrainian War.[8] At the beginning of war in the Donbass, an Afghan Pashtun by the name of Rafi Jaffar joined the ranks of the Vostok battalion in 2014.[9] Jaffar's parents who were apart of the PDPA were killed by the Mujahedeen during the Afghan Civil War. The Soviets took him in and sent him to a Soviet boarding school in the city of Rostov. Known by his comrades as "Abdullah", In 2018, Jaffar lost both legs in a mortar attack. Despite this he continues to serve the DPR refusing to put on prosthetics. In May 2023, Russian president Vladimir Putin met with Jaffar via E conference after being told about Jaffar's health.[10][11][12] Another Pro Russian fighter going by the callsign "Pashtun", who was born in Kharkov to a Russian specialist mother and a Afghan doctor father, was featured on Russia Today on a report about drone warfare.[13][14] There is one known Afghan-Ukrainian in the Ukrainian army named Jalal Noory, who joined following the Russian invasion in 2022.[15][16]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Abibok, Yulia (5 November 2021). "Ukraine's Afghan Diaspora Sees Change Coming". Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Odynets, Svitlana (2020). "Not really at home: Adaptation strategies of Asian migrants in Ukraine". Asian and Pacific Migration Journal. 29 (3): 422–443. doi:10.1177/0117196820968901. S2CID 227906228.
  3. ^ Marsden, Magnus (2015). "From Kabul to Kiev: Afghan trading networks across the former Soviet Union". Modern Asian Studies. 49 (4): 1010–1048. doi:10.1017/S0026749X14000584. S2CID 143926099.
  4. ^ Marsden, Magnus; Ibañez-Tirado, Diana (2015). "Repertoires of Family Life and the Anchoring of Afghan Trading Networks in Ukraine". History and Anthropology. 26 (2): 145–164. doi:10.1080/02757206.2014.1002375. S2CID 145621182.
  5. ^ "The distribution of the population by nationality and mother tongue". All-Ukrainian Population Census 2001. State Statistics Committee of Ukraine. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  6. ^ Schwirtz, Michael (24 September 2021). "A Nervy Trip to Kabul: How Ukraine Negotiated With the Taliban and Rescued 96 Afghans". New York Times. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  7. ^ "Afghan media highlights 28 Feb 22". BBC Monitoring. 28 February 2022. ProQuest 2633912105.
  8. ^ "Meet the Afghan refugees fighting Russia's latest invasion".
  9. ^ "Американец, пуштун, колумбиец, француз: Донбасс защищает интернационал добровольцев". vesti.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-08-09.
  10. ^ "Донбасс воюет на двух фронтах". vesti.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-08-09.
  11. ^ "Чем известен боец, о состоянии здоровья которого рассказали Путину?". AiF (in Russian). 2023-05-19. Retrieved 2023-08-09.
  12. ^ "Чем известен боец, о состоянии здоровья которого рассказали Путину?". forpost-sevastopol.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-08-09.
  13. ^ "Корр Косарев". Telegram. Retrieved 2023-08-09.[better source needed]
  14. ^ "VK.com | VK". m.vk.com. Retrieved 2023-08-09.[better source needed]
  15. ^ "The Afghan refugee commanding Ukrainian troops". BBC News.
  16. ^ https://prospect.org/world/in-europe-some-refugees-are-more-equal-than-others/


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