Ukrainian stand-up comic: Why kill Orthodox Christians when there are Muslims?

After social media reactions to Anton Stenyuk's video performance, the comedian apologized and deleted the segment with the "joke."

Ukrainian stand-up comedian Anton Steniuk found himself in a scandal after making an inappropriate joke about killing Muslims. The original video was posted back in March 2024, but social media users only recently took notice of it. In his performance, the comedian touched on topics including Muslims, Orthodoxy, and the war, according to Telegraf.

"This war is just nonsense. I don’t know how it happened that some Orthodox Christians are killing other Orthodox Christians when there are still so many Muslims in the world. I’m not saying that Muslims should be killed. I’m a reasonable person. I understand that now is not the time for that," Steniuk "joked".

This remark drew a response from the Mufti of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine "Umma" and Armed Forces serviceman, Said Ismagilov.

"Kill Muslims? Well, go ahead and try, boy," he wrote.

The head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, called it an open attack based on religious grounds.

Ukraine's Ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, also reacted, announcing that he had contacted law enforcement authorities.

Anton Steniuk himself posted a statement on Instagram where he apologized to those offended by his words. He admitted that one of his jokes was inappropriate and unacceptable.

"I deeply regret that I may have offended many people, particularly members of the Muslim community. I had no intention of humiliating or insulting anyone based on religion. I have already removed this video from social media, and we will also remove this segment from the performance published on YouTube. I take full responsibility for my words and promise to be more mindful in my work moving forward," he said.

As previously reported, a prayer book for Muslim servicemen was recently presented in Ukraine.

Read also