Reactions from Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham's Figures and Supporters to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine now dominating world headlines, naturally many on social media turn their attention to following the constant updates and pontificating on the invasion. In this post I compile with translation the reactions of those involved with the insurgent group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, which dominates northwest Syria and has been involved with fighting Russian forces backing the Syrian government. Unsurprisingly, they are all happy to see Russian forces involved in fighting another enemy and they hope that this will jeopardise Russia’s involvement in Syria.

However, these sentiments do not necessarily translate into supporting Ukraine as a country, as Ukraine is after all a non-Muslim state. In this particular collection, I highlight the detailed discussion by ‘al-Zubair al-Ghazi’ (a leader in Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham of Palestinian origin) regarding Muslims and fighting the Russians in Ukraine, where he makes clear it is not permitted to fight under the banner of the Ukrainian army, but rather Muslims in Ukraine should fight in defence of their own religion and honour, although they can coordinate with the Ukrainian army and take weapons from it. What is clear then is that there is no call for a general mobilisation of Muslims around the world to fight in Ukraine against the Russians. If more posts of note appear over time I will update this collection accordingly.