"Not of my own volition": human rights defender Masi Nayem spoke for the first time about his dismissal from the Armed Forces

I sincerely regret that I cannot explain everything as it really was, and that the justice I sought remained somewhere between the lines," he admits. Masi does not name the minister who signed the decree on his dismissal. During the war in Ukraine, the ministers of defense were Oleksiy Reznikov (from November 4, 2021 to September 5, 2023) and Rustem Umerov (from September 6, 2023 to July 17, 2025). This position is currently held by Denys Shmyhal.

According to him, for the first time he stood up for the defense of his homeland in 2015, he fought in New York and Avdiivka in Donbas. He was demobilized in the fall of 2016. In March 2022, the lawyer again joined the ZSU. "Not because there was no choice, but because I couldn't do otherwise - there were my own, those whom I did not leave then and will never leave," he continued.

On June 5, 2022, Masi Nayem received a serious injury, as a result of which part of his frontal lobe of the brain and an eye were cut out, and he was later given the status of a person with a disability. Despite what he had experienced and the right to write off, he still returned to the front. "There is a silence that you can't stand in the city, because it's not real.

There, among your people, you feel close to people who breathe the same dust, look into the same darkness and hold this line as if it were the last in the world. And when you are pulled out of there, something remains unsaid inside, as if you left in the middle of a conversation. I did not come back to prove something else. I just wanted to be among my own again - those who do not ask, why did you come back, because you would have done the same yourself," he explained.

Nayem rose to the rank of major and performed the duties of the service until his last days. "Performing one of these tasks led to the order of the former Secretary of Defense to remove me from the service: without explanation, without an opportunity to defend myself. Everyone who knows the details understands that it was unfair - from my subordinates, my immediate commanders to those who signed the documents.

And although I have said that justice is difficult to find in the service, one day I will tell all the details of this story - calmly, with names, facts and evidence," the lawyer promised. He noted that he is not doing it now not because of fear, but because he has no right to impersonate people who are currently serving.

The veteran admits that he feels gratitude to his comrades and the pain of the fact that he has to leave the service: "So that there are no guesses about those with whom I served, I will say it again, almost as a soldier: I have boundless gratitude and tenderness to my unit, to the commander, to every comrade and sister with whom I had the honor to serve. I know that, reading this text, they are for me. And this is the most, that warms me.

" Nayem announced that he is returning to civilian life and will continue, if not the service, then the service. "I will remain as I am, stubborn, direct, sometimes sharp, with all my flaws and strange habits that annoy others, but save me. I am not a saint and not an example to follow. Just a person who has been in the war and has no patience for falsehood, stupidity and ostentatious correctness," he emphasized.

He is returning to work at the Miller Law Firm, where he will be a company manager and attorney, he said. Nayem will also continue his human rights activities in the "Princip" organization, which deals with the protection of military personnel and veterans. He emphasized that his bond with his brothers will remain as strong.

"The thread between us is not broken with a dismissal or an order - it rests on stronger values ​​than the signatures of ministers," the author summarized, thanking everyone who was and remains with him in all trials. We will remind you that Masi Nayem equated the Uklonists with "Russians". "I'm not saying dodgers are good. Dodgers are bad, dodgers are Russians, actually. Let's equate [the Russians] and forget about them," he said in an interview.