Those who joined the war against Russian troops are also fighting against past injustices and for the return of Crimea, writes Al Jazeera.

Ali Khadzali stands among blown-up buildings in his hometown of Kharkiv, about 50 kilometers from Ukraine’s border with Russia.

Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in February, Khadzali has worked with a team of six volunteers to provide humanitarian aid and evacuate people from areas hit hard by the fighting.

Khadzali was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, to a Ukrainian mother and a Syrian father. He regularly visited Syria before the start of the war in 2011. In 2015, Russia’s intervention in the 11-year civil war in Syria tipped the scales in favor of the Assad regime.

“Both of my homelands, Ukraine and Syria, were captured by the Russians,” says Hadzali.

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Joining the hostilities

In 2015, Hadzali became a chaplain – an imam who provides spiritual services in a military context.

Last year, during the Maidan revolution, Ukrainians took to the streets to protest against the pro-Russian government of President Viktor Yanukovych. His forces responded with a brutal crackdown that left more than 100 protesters dead and thousands injured.

Yanukovych was ousted, and soon after, Russian-backed separatists took up arms in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Donbas, starting an eight-year war.

Encouraged by his “Islamic brothers” to take on this new role, Hadzali wanted to find a way to help his country and believed that he could best do so by supporting a small number of Muslim troops scattered throughout Donbas. “What could be better than playing a role related to the military in a country at war?” says Hadzali.

As a chaplain, he led prayers, ensured the provision of halal food and provided religious training, psychological support and human rights guidance to the troops. “Just talking to the troops,” he says, was an important part of his job. “That might be the most important thing.”

He still fulfills these duties, but today his role has an even higher price – he often spends his time helping people in dangerous areas on the front lines.

“We have a list of people who need help and we check on them every week,” he says. “For example, we take medicine to elderly people who need it and food… When you help one family, your phone number reaches 10 families who need help,” he says.

Although Muslims make up only about 1 percent of this predominantly Christian country of 44 million people, many have joined the war since the Russian invasion.

Many are motivated by the history of Russian injustice towards Muslim communities and support for what is considered an open and tolerant Ukraine.

The majority of the Muslim population of Ukraine are Crimean Tatars, Sunni Muslims of Turkish origin. For those who are fighting, it is also a struggle to return to their homeland, to Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014. (Full text on Al Jazeera)

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