2024-03-13 04:47:20
“We will meet at 22:30 under the Independence Monument. Dress warmly, take umbrellas, tea, coffee, good mood and friends,” Ukrainian investigative journalist Mustafa Najem wrote on Facebook on November 21, 2013. He did not yet know that he had just changed the course of Ukrainian history. Ten years later, it plays a key role in Ukraine’s fight against the neighboring aggressor.
The then 32-year-old Najem, like many other young Ukrainians, in 2013 did not agree with the move of former President Viktor Yanukovych, who, under pressure from Russia, withdrew from the upcoming signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. In response to Yanukovych’s decision, Najem called people to protest, thus starting events called Euromaidan.
The streets turned into a battlefield as security forces cracked down on the protesters. Riots took place especially in Kyiv, where interventions against disgruntled residents resulted in over a hundred deaths. The protests lasted for three months and resulted in the overthrow of Yanukovych in February 2014.
“When I think of Maidan, I feel a mixture of pride and deep sadness,” Najem recalls in an interview with Aktuálně.cz. According to him, it was the moment when Ukrainians chose democracy, but immediately after that Russia invaded Crimea.
After Yanukovych signed a deal with the opposition and fled the country, Putin ordered the annexation of the peninsula and the Russians provoked an uprising in parts of the Donbass that soon turned into a war. “My sadness stems mainly from the fact that the war has been going on for more than ten years and that we have suffered such a loss of life. We had no choice then, just as we have no choice now. The only option is to continue defending our homeland,” says Najem, which is involved even after the Russian army invaded Ukraine the year before.
After the overthrow of Yanukovych, he embarked on a political career, worked as a member of parliament for five years, and after leaving the parliament held several government positions. He has been leading the State Agency for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, which was created in response to the Russian aggression of February 2022 and which is supposed to ensure the post-war reconstruction of the country, since last January.
Because of his activities, the Kremlin put him on the list of people it wants dead. “I was offered personal security several times, the last time after I helped uncover corruption. I refused it every time. Such threats don’t bother me at all,” describes the former journalist.
According to the Ukrainian government, the UN and the European Commission, direct damage in the areas of housing, infrastructure and energy caused by the war in Ukraine amounts to more than 135 billion dollars (3.1 trillion crowns). The estimated cost of restoration is around 411 billion dollars (9.5 trillion crowns).
However, Najem points out that by far the biggest challenge for Ukraine is the departure of educated people.
He helped with the Agency for the Reconstruction of Ukraine last June, for example after the explosion of the Nová Kakhovka dam, which threatened water supplies for more than a million Ukrainians. From what appeared to be irreversible damage, Mustafa and his team managed to almost completely restore the water pipes.
“This project was the first of its kind in Ukraine. The biggest challenge was to shorten what we would normally work on for years to just months,” explains Najem. Within days of the Russian attack on Kachovka, he mobilized workers as well as hundreds of machines. They worked around the clock in all weathers to lay 145 kilometers of pipeline.
Najem comes from Afghanistan, his father worked there as the deputy minister of education, who was in charge of building schools in remote parts of the country. He was eight years old when his family fled the country in 1989. “The last thing I would like is for us to have to run somewhere again. I won’t allow that. I don’t want to repeat my father’s fate,” he says.
According to him, Ukraine is in survival mode. Repairs to houses, roads and bridges, which are in critical condition, are the order of the day here, but defeating the enemy on the front line remains the priority, he emphasizes. However, Ukraine is currently suffering from a lack of ammunition and soldiers two years after the start of Russian aggression.
“Planning ahead is now impossible for Ukraine, it is such a luxury for us. We pay the main attention to our army and people. Nevertheless, we continue to build, knowing that every repair is a small step towards something bigger – to a future where all this effort will pay off ,” concludes Najem.
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