Amina Okuyeva

Amina Viktorovna Okuyeva
Native name	Аміна Вікторівна Окуєва
Born	Natalia Viktorivna Nikiforova (1983-06-05)5 June 1983 Odessa, Ukrainian SSR
Died	30 October 2017(2017-10-30) (aged 34) Hlevakha, Vasylkiv Raion, Kiev Oblast, Ukraine
Nationality	Ukraine
Other names	Anastasiya
Alma mater	Odessa National Medical University
Occupation	Police Lieutenant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
Spouse(s)	Adam Osmaev
Awards	People's Hero of Ukraine

Amina Viktorovna Okueva (Ukrainian: Аміна Вікторівна Окуєва; 5 June 1983 – 30 October 2017) was a Ukrainian doctor, 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 in the Chechen wars, was injured in the ambush but survived.^[1][2]

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. 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, who 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 as assassinate Vladimir Putin; they later had a wedding ceremony but did not officially register the marriage.^[3][4]

Euromaidan, military, and political activities

After the start of Euromaidan she joined a unit of Afghanistan veterans as a 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 Lugansk.

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 in the process managed to fire four rounds into the attacker; the police were able to detain the suspect and begin proceeding, in which the initially identified him not as a French journalist but as a citizen of Ukraine by the believed to be by 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]

Death

Okueva was killed in a military-style ambush on 30 October 2017 near Glevakha village in the Kiev Oblast. Unidentified attackers opened fire on the car containing her and her husband while 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 futile in trying to save her from two gunshot wounds to the head. 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][10][11]

She was buried in the Dnieper on 1 November 2017, next to the grave of Isa Munayev, where she stated in her will she wanted to he 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.^[10]

References