- January 27, 2026
- 5:50 pm
- Israel
A creative meeting with Aider Muzhdabaev — a Crimean Tatar journalist and media manager who has been living and working in Ukraine since 2015 and publicly addresses topics of Crimea, war, propaganda, and social responsibility — will be held in Tel Aviv.
When: Thursday, January 29, 2026, 19:00.
Where: Ukrainian Cultural Center is part of the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel.,- Yermiyahu St, 22, Tel Aviv (corner of Yermiyahu and Ben Yehuda streets).
Free entry. Donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine are voluntary. No tickets — just come …
The event format is announced as a live performance and open communication with the audience. A “question-answer” block is planned, where participants can ask direct and uncomfortable questions — about the war, media, fear, compromises, and the price of silence. A separate part of the evening will be dedicated to collecting donations for the needs of a specific unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine — the battalion named after Devlet I Giray.
This is a principled moment: it is not about abstract “support for the front,” but about helping a real unit with a specific structure, history, and combat experience.
For the Israeli audience, such meetings have a special meaning. Israel is a country where issues of security, war, and personal responsibility have long ceased to be theoretical. Therefore, the conversation about Ukraine here inevitably goes beyond the “foreign conflict” and becomes a conversation about the survival of societies, the role of the army, media, and citizens.
What will happen at the meeting
According to the announced format:
- public speech by Aider Muzhdabaev;
- conversation with the audience and answers to questions;
- fundraising for the needs of the battalion named after Devlet I Giray — the 2nd separate rifle battalion of the 109th separate brigade of territorial defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Such meetings are usually built without scripted preparations: there are basic topics — war, Crimea, propaganda, the internal cost of resistance — and there is a live conversation that often goes where official speeches do not.
Aider Muzhdabaev
“Journalist, founder of Russophobia as an exact science. Thinker, analyst, accurately predicted this war” – this is how he describes himself on his Facebook account.
Aider Izzetovich Muzhdabaev was born on March 8, 1972, in Tambov. By origin — Crimean Tatar. He speaks Russian, Ukrainian, and Crimean Tatar languages.
– https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Муждабаєв_Айдер_Іззетович
His professional career began in regional journalism in the early 1990s. Subsequently, he worked for more than 17 years in one of the largest Russian newspapers, where he rose from correspondent to deputy editor-in-chief. This period gave him a deep understanding of the structure of the Russian media system, mechanisms of censorship, self-censorship, and propaganda.
2014 – laureate of the Moscow Helsinki Group award in the field of human rights protection.
After 2014, Muzhdabaev publicly opposed the annexation of Crimea and Russian aggression against Ukraine. In 2015, he left Russia and moved to Ukraine, where he began working at the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR. Subsequently, he obtained Ukrainian citizenship.
In Ukraine, he became one of the prominent public speakers who systematically raise topics:
- occupation of Crimea and the situation of Crimean Tatars;
- war and social responsibility;
- information warfare and media manipulation.
Due to his pro-Ukrainian and anti-Putin stance, Aider Muzhdabaev is subjected to political persecution by the Russian authorities and is wanted.
On May 21, 2020, a criminal case was opened against Aider in Russia for allegedly public calls for terrorist activities, public justification, or propaganda of terrorism.
On June 25, 2020, Russia declared Aider internationally wanted, citing “public justification of terrorism and calls for it” as the stated reason. Muzhdabaev called it a gift for the Crimean Tatar Flag Day, celebrated on June 26.
Co-author of Boris Nemtsov’s report “Putin. War” on Russia’s interference in Ukrainian politics and the use of Russian armed forces in the Russian-Ukrainian war. After Boris Nemtsov’s murder, he was one of those who presented the report in Moscow in May 2015. In the report, he is the author of the third chapter titled “How Crimea was taken” about the beginning of the temporary annexation of Crimea by Russia.
This fact is part of his biography and the context in which he speaks outside of Russia.
Battalion named after Devlet I Giray
The battalion named after Devlet I Giray is the 2nd separate rifle battalion of the 109th separate brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. – https://www.devletgiray.army/
The unit consists of experienced military personnel and has participated in combat operations in key areas of the Russian-Ukrainian war, including:
- Kyiv region,
- Kharkiv region,
- Sumy region,
- Donetsk direction,
- Bakhmut area.
The battalion performs both defensive and offensive tasks. In the conditions of modern warfare, territorial defense units have long ceased to be the “second line” — they hold the front, participate in heavy battles, and suffer comparable losses.
The main principles of the unit:
- high combat effectiveness;
- courage and discipline;
- attention to preserving the life and health of personnel.
The funds collected during the meeting are intended for the practical needs of the battalion — communication, transportation, medical support, equipment, and everything that directly affects the survival of the fighters.
Who is Devlet I Giray and why the battalion bears his name
Devlet I Giray (1512–1577) was a Crimean Khan from the Giray dynasty, who ruled the Crimean Khanate in the mid-16th century.
During his reign, the khanate achieved internal stability: internecine strife was suppressed, beylik clans were united, and central authority was strengthened. Devlet I Giray went down in history as one of the strongest rulers of his time.
He is known for numerous military campaigns against the Moscow Tsardom.
The most famous episode was the 1571 invasion, which ended with the burning of Moscow. For this campaign, he received the nickname “Taht Alğan” — “Throne Taker.”
It is important to emphasize: the use of the name Devlet I Giray in the name of the modern Ukrainian battalion is a symbol of historical memory. In the Crimean Tatar tradition, Devlet I Giray is a figure associated with a period of statehood, strength, and agency.
In Ukrainian military culture, such names are a way to emphasize identity, historical continuity, and the right to one’s own history in the context of a war for survival.
Crimea and indigenous peoples: why it matters
Aider Muzhdabaev is a Crimean Tatar, and this is not just a biographical detail. It is the key to understanding why the topic of Crimea, memory, and war occupies a central place in his public speeches.
Crimea was occupied by Russia in February–March 2014 after the introduction of Russian troops and the holding of the so-called “referendum” on March 16, 2014, not recognized by Ukraine and the overwhelming majority of countries in the world. On March 18, 2014, Russia announced the “annexation” of the peninsula. Since then, Crimea has been under actual Russian occupation.
Crimea is not just a territory. It is a space of historical memory and life of indigenous peoples, whose identity was formed precisely on this peninsula. In the modern Ukrainian legal framework, such peoples include Crimean Tatars, Karaites, and Krymchaks.
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars are the largest indigenous people of Crimea. Their key historical trauma is the deportation on May 18, 1944, when almost the entire people were forcibly removed from Crimea. According to various estimates, tens of thousands died in the first years of exile.
Return became possible only decades later. During the period from 1991 to 2014, Crimean Tatars massively returned to Crimea, rebuilt homes, revived language, culture, and religious life, created community structures, and non-violent political representation. During this period, they generally supported Ukrainian statehood, seeing in Ukraine a chance for legal protection and recognition.
After 2014, Crimean Tatars became one of the most vulnerable groups on the peninsula: searches, arrests, criminal cases, bans on representative bodies, pressure on activists and journalists, forced departure of part of the community are recorded.
Karaites and Krymchaks
Karaites are a small ethno-religious community of Crimea, practicing Karaite Judaism, based on the Written Torah. Historically, Karaites maintained their own religious and cultural autonomy and generally avoided political conflicts. After 2014, their community life also came under pressure due to the general atmosphere of unfreedom and uncertainty.
Krymchaks are a Jewish community of Crimea, practicing Rabbinic Judaism. During World War II, the community was almost completely destroyed by the Nazis. In the post-Soviet period, it was no longer about restoring numbers, but about preserving memory and the last community ties, which after 2014 became even more vulnerable.
Legal status and turning point
In 2021, Ukraine adopted a law on indigenous peoples, officially recognizing Crimean Tatars, Karaites, and Krymchaks as indigenous peoples of Ukraine and enshrining their right to language, culture, religion, and protection from discrimination.
The annexation of Crimea in 2014 destroyed this legal framework in practice. Russia does not recognize the status of indigenous peoples of Ukraine and does not provide mechanisms for protecting their collective rights. For Crimean Tatars, this became a repetition of historical trauma — the loss of security, legal field, and the ability to independently decide their fate on their native land.
At the same time, it is fundamentally important: Crimean Tatars consistently advocate for the right to self-determination precisely within Ukraine, and not for the separation of Crimea or the change of internationally recognized borders. Their position is built around the idea of autonomy, self-government, preservation of language, culture, and religion while respecting the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state.
That is why after 2014, Crimean Tatars mostly:
boycotted the so-called “referendum,”
publicly declared non-recognition of the annexation,
supported Ukraine as a state that recognizes them as an indigenous people and enshrines this right at the level of law.
For Karaites and Krymchaks, the occupation also meant the disappearance of even those limited guarantees that existed earlier, and the strengthening of the dependence of community life on the will of the occupation administration.
Thus, the struggle of Crimean Tatars today is not a struggle for a change of flag, but a struggle for the right to be an indigenous people on their land, to have representation, to speak their language, and to decide their future within a sovereign Ukraine.
Main point
Crimea today is not only a question of borders and dates. It is a question of people, memory, and the right to be oneself. That is why the topic of Crimea remains central in discussions about war and responsibility — and that is how it is often perceived by Israeli readers, for whom the historical experience of loss, return, and struggle for recognition is well understood on a personal level.
Why this meeting is important
The creative meeting with Aider Muzhdabaev in Tel Aviv is not just a cultural event and not a formal evening with a microphone. It is a conversation about war without officialdom, about media without illusions, and about why history suddenly becomes part of the present — here and now.
The format “conversation + questions + specific collection for a specific unit” connects words and actions. It is such events that form a lively, honest agenda of the Israeli-Ukrainian space — the one that is followed and recorded by NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency, as part of the general conversation about war, responsibility, and choice, which can no longer be postponed.
