Amina Okueva

Amina Viktorivna Okueva (Ukrainian: Аміна Вікторівна Окуєва; 5 June 1983 – 30 October 2017) was a Ukrainian doctor of Chechen descent, Euromaidan activist, convert to Islam, and police lieutenant. During the Euromaidan she worked as a medic in the Kiev-2 battalion and saw combat in the city of Debaltseve after it was taken over by Russian-aligned rebels in 2015. She was killed in an ambush by unknown attackers on 30 October 2017. Her husband Adam Osmaev, a leader of the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion, was injured in the ambush but survived.[1][2]

Amina Viktorivna Okueva
Аміна Вікторівна Окуєва
Born
Natalia Viktorivna Nikiforova

(1983-06-05)5 June 1983
Odessa, Ukrainian SSR
Died30 October 2017(2017-10-30) (aged 34)
Hlevakha, Vasylkiv Raion,
Kiev Oblast, Ukraine
Nationality Ukraine
Other namesAnastasiya
Alma materOdessa National Medical University
OccupationPolice Lieutenant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
Spouse(s)
  • Isa Mustafinov
    ​
    (
    m. 2000; died 2003)
  • Islam Tukhashev
    ​
    (
    divorced)
  • Adam Osmaev
    ​
    (
    m. after 2009)
AwardsPeople's Hero of Ukraine

Early life

Okueva was born an only child in Odessa in 1983 to a Chechen father and a Polish mother from the North Caucasus. Okueva stated that she did not know her father due to his early death. She lived with her family in Moscow and Grozny before moving back to Ukraine in 2003 after fighting on the side of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria the Second Chechen War, having converted to Islam at the age of 17.[3] Then she changed her name. First name of Amina Okueva was Natalia Nikiforova.[1] After she married the military Mustafinov Isa, she changed her name to Amina and became Okueva after her second marriage and did not change her name any more.[1] Upon arrival in Ukraine she enrolled at the Odessa National Medical University where she specialized in general surgery before working as an intern at a local hospital. She was married three times; her first husband, Isa Mustafinov, whom she married in 2000, died in 2003 during the Second Chechen war. Islam Tukhashev, her second husband, was deported from Ukraine for illegally staying in the country and was later sentenced to life imprisonment in Russia for the murder of Russian intelligence officers in Ingushetia; due to his residency status the marriage was not registered in Ukraine. In 2009 she met Adam Osmaev, who is currently accused of attempting to assassinate Vladimir Putin; they later had a wedding ceremony but did not officially register the marriage.[4]

Euromaidan, military, and political activities

After the start of Euromaidan she joined a unit of Afghanistan veterans by staffing a medical tent during the protests. She joined the "Kiev-2" battalion to serve as a paramedic in Eastern Ukraine after the start of the conflict, but she did not practice medicine much while she was there, and directly participated in the Battle of Debaltseve in Luhansk Oblast. She also served as press secretary for the Dhozkhar Dudaev International Peacekeeping Battalion.[3]

She ran in the 2014 Parliamentary election as a self-nominated candidate in the Suvorovskyi Raion of Odessa while she was a police officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; she received only 3.72% of the vote, putting her in ninth place.[5][6]

Attempted assassination

A man masquerading as a French journalist from Le Monde opened fire on Okueva and her husband while they were in their car on Kyrylivska Street in Kiev on 1 June 2017. In the attack her husband was seriously injured but she was not, and in the process managed to fire four rounds into the attacker; the police were able to detain the suspect and begin proceeding, in which they initially identified him not as a French journalist but as a citizen of Ukraine by the name of Aleksander Dakar; he was later identified as Arthur Abdulayevich Denisultanov, who is suspected of killing Umar Israilov, a former bodyguard of Ramzan Kadyrov; Israilov had accused Kadyrov of supporting human rights violations.[7][8][9] Arthur Denisultanov was, as part of a prisoner exchange, released and handed over to the Donetsk People's Republic on 29 December 2019.[10]

Death

Okueva was killed in a military-style ambush on 30 October 2017 near the village of Hlevakha, Kiev Oblast. Unidentified attackers opened fire on the car containing her and her husband while it slowed by a railroad crossing, firing five rounds into her including two fatal rounds into her head. Her husband Osmaev was only injured in the leg and began first aid before calling for emergency services and driving away, but was not successful in his efforts to save her. Spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine stated that the Russian military may have been involved, although the identity of the attackers remains unknown.[2][11][12]

Okueva was buried was buried in Dnipro in the Muslim section of the Krasnopil cemetery near the Dnieper[13] on 1 November 2017, next to the grave of Isa Munayev, where she stated in her will she wanted to be buried. Her family did not attend the public farewell ceremony fearing that the event could become a target for an attack, and the funeral itself took place under armed guard.[11]

In November 2019 the Kiev city council decided to rename the Projectna Street in Kiev's Shevchenkivskyi District after Okueva as part of Ukraine's national decommunization process.[14] In June 2020 the Dnipro city council decided a new street in the city's Amur-Nyzhnodniprovskyi District wil be named after Okueva; an earlier attempt to rename the local Populus Street in her honour had not been supported by its residents.[15]

gollark: It is kind of bizarre that that happened, since it probably would have been more effective to just do one dose of the mRNA ones.
gollark: Which I guess could have been used for Orion drives, but still.
gollark: Nuclear weapons, for instance, required a bunch of specialised R&D which was basically only useful for making nuclear weapons.
gollark: And have fewer spinoffs.
gollark: Some technologies lead more easily to harm than others.

References
  1. "Who Was Amina Okueva, The Chechen-Ukrainian Sniper Killed This Week?". Hromadske. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
  2. "Man 'who plotted to kill Putin' wounded". BBC News. 2017-10-31. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  3. "Who Was Amina Okueva, The Chechen-Ukrainian Sniper Killed This Week?". en.hromadske.ua. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  4. "Жінка-воїн Аміна Окуєва: що про неї відомо?". BBC News Україна. 2017-10-31. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  5. "Центральна виборча комісія України - WWW відображення ІАС "Вибори народних депутатів України 2014"". cvk.gov.ua (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  6. "Центральна виборча комісія України - WWW відображення ІАС "Вибори народних депутатів України 2014"". cvk.gov.ua (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2018-06-21. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  7. "Денисултанов-Курмакаев Артур Абдуллаевич - Myrotvorets.center". Myrotvorets.center (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  8. "Поліція: На Подолі намагалися вбити подружжя добровольців". Українська правда (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  9. "Нападник на Осмаєва виявився особистим кілером Кадирова". espreso.tv. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  10. "Покушение на Осмаева и Окуеву: киллера недавно обменяли". zn.ua (in Russian). 2020-01-13. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  11. Цензор.НЕТ. "Адам Осмаєв: "Я майже весь час її тримав, намагався, щоб кров не витікала, але це нереально. У мене на руках Аміна померла"". Цензор.НЕТ (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  12. "Вбивство Окуєвої: подробиці". РБК-Украина (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  13. (in Ukrainian) A memorial sign in honor of Isa Munayev was unveiled in Dnipro, Radio Free Europe (7 August 2018)
  14. (in Ukrainian) In Kyiv, they decided to name the streets in honor of Okueva and Abolmasov, The Ukrainian Week (12 November 2019)
  15. (in Ukrainian) Amina Okueva Street will appear in Dnipro, Ukrainska Pravda (24 June 2020)
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