“They are barbarians,” Mustafa Dzhemilev, 80, told the Kyiv Independent on September 2, assessing the damage caused to the Islamic Cultural Center in Kyiv by an early morning Russian missile attack.

“If they attacked the children’s hospital, why didn’t they destroy the cultural center?” he added, referring to the attack on Okhmatdyt, the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine, on July 8.

The Islamic Cultural Center is an important center for Ukrainian Muslims and is considered the main place of religious worship for Crimean Tatar Muslims in the country, outside Russian-occupied Crimea.

In the early morning hours of September 2, explosions rang out in Kyiv as air defenses intercepted incoming Russian missiles. The Ukrainian Air Force said it had detected 35 bullets of various types and 23 attack drones fired across the country. Nine Iskander ballistic missiles, 13 Kh-101 cruise missiles and 20 drones were shot down, the Air Force said.

Authorities said three people were injured in the attack, and falling debris also damaged other buildings in the capital.

The Islamic Cultural Center was damaged by a shock wave that was created when the shell struck the courtyard of a building behind it, creating a crater more than 20 feet wide and causing the building to partially collapse, shattering windows and causing parts of the ceiling in the prayer halls to collapse.

As Zelensky reported in late August, since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, Russia has destroyed or damaged more than 500 churches, mosques, synagogues and other religious sites in Ukraine.

There is no official information on whether the area around the mosque was hit directly by a rocket or whether debris fell on it.

“Fortunately, there was no one in the center at the time,” Vadym Dashevsky, deputy supreme mufti of Crimea, told the Kyiv Independent newspaper, standing in front of the destroyed prayer hall.

It’s hard, but the most important thing is that no one was hurt. And the walls can be rebuilt.”

In the hall damaged in the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky and senior government officials organized this year’s traditional Ramadan dinner for Muslims serving in the Ukrainian army and Crimean Tatars.

The center regularly hosts charity fundraisers, educational events, and several prayer services a day, attracting approximately 250-400 worshippers on Fridays.

According to Daszewski, the mosque will continue to function, although all the carpets in the prayer halls are covered in small pieces of glass and can no longer be cleaned.

Who will clean it up, if not us?” said Ruslan Aliyev, 37, a regular at the mosque who left work to help.

At around 1 p.m., a dozen or so men, taking a break from sweeping up rubble, rolled out a spare carpet in the center’s courtyard and knelt for afternoon prayer.

Muslim leaders and officials arrived at the scene late in the afternoon to assess the scale of the destruction and express support.

Turkish Ambassador to Ukraine Mustafa Levent Bilgen toured the building together with Mustafa Dzhemilev, a Ukrainian lawmaker and prominent Crimean Tatar leader, and Nariman Dzhelial, First Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, who was released in a prisoner exchange with Russia on July 28.

“We have received calls from Pakistan and Indonesia, from friends who are praying for us,” says Murat Suleimanov, mufti of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine “Umma,” which operates in parallel to the Religious Administration of Muslims of Crimea that manages the center.

“Today, the ambassadors of Pakistan and South Africa came to our mosque and asked about it,” he added.

“The mosque in Kharkiv and many others in the east were destroyed. For (the Russians) it’s all the same – a mosque or a church,” says Daszewski.

“Russia systematically persecutes Muslims (in their own country),” adds Dzhelial, who was recently released from almost three years of detention in Crimea, where a Russian court sentenced him to 17 years in prison after he took part in a public conference supporting the liberation of Crimea in 2021.

Lenie Ibragimova, a 36-year-old artist from Crimea who was one of the first women to come to clean up, says she is “not helping, but doing her duty.”

“The Russians think we’ll ask for peace on any terms if they attack us, but it’s the opposite. We’ll clean up, restore it and defeat them.”

Just hours after being woken by Russian missiles, Ukrainian students begin a new school year

On the first morning of school, Anna Sushko’s sons, 6 and 7, were in a bomb shelter in Kiev, hiding from a Russian missile attack. In the early morning of September 2, when Ukrainian children and students start the school year, Russia