The Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Moshe Reuven Asman, reported on September 2, 2026, that a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the call sign “Hasid” received a new award and became a full holder of the “Star of Glory.” The wording of the basis is also unusual: the award followed “for the execution of special tasks from the High Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
Asman did not name the real name of the serviceman, nor the unit, nor the nature of these tasks. He only wrote that “Hasid” is a believer of his community, and added: “I am sincerely proud that there are such Jews in our community.”
For NANews, this is not the first appearance of “Hasid.” We have already detailed his story after another award. At that time, it was possible to gather a rather rare combination of open information: the person hides his face and name, but at the same time appears for years in official and semi-official materials about the training of Ukrainian military personnel.
Now the “Star of Glory” has been added to this biography. And this is where the story becomes more complicated than a short Facebook post. Author: Lev Varshavsky
What is the “Star of Glory”
An award with this name exists in the system of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
The GUR in its official publications called the “Star of Glory” its highest award. It was awarded to military intelligence officers and servicemen for special merits, including the execution of reconnaissance and special tasks.
It is important to clarify immediately: this is not a state award of Ukraine at the level of the title Hero of Ukraine or the Order “For Courage.” The “Star of Glory” is a departmental award, but within the structure of military intelligence, its status is the highest.
There is another detail without which Asman’s expression “full holder” is difficult to understand.
In the GUR award catalogs, there are separately “Star of Glory” I degree and “Star of Glory” II degree.
If it is about this award, the expression “full holder” usually means receiving all existing degrees. That is, “Hasid” must have received both.
But this is where the line is drawn between what is known and what only follows from the combination of signs.
Asman’s publication does not contain the words “GUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.” The degree of the current award is not specified. No certificate is published. There is no order number. Therefore, the phrase “Hasid received both degrees of the highest GUR award” would be too categorical for now.
At the same time, three elements coincide at once: the name “Star of Glory,” the presence of two degrees in the GUR award, and the expression “full holder.” This is added to the basis for the award — special tasks of the high military command.
This is no longer a random coincidence of names. But the last documentary link is not yet available in open access.
Who is this person anyway
“Hasid” has appeared in Ukrainian materials for at least several years.
He was presented as an instructor with serious combat experience, engaged in the training of infantry, mechanized units, and scouts. In materials about the training of Ukrainian fighters, he appeared not as a media hero, but as a person training those who were to go to the front afterward.
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine talked about his participation in the training of the assault brigade “Steel Border.”
In the same context, his experience related to special units of Ukraine and Israel was mentioned.
And here, in retellings, the biography began to be filled with details that the primary publications do not confirm. On the internet, “Hasid” is often directly called a former fighter of the Israeli special forces. We did not find a reliable open document that would allow us to assert this.
There is a connection with Israel. The formula “Israeli special forces” is already a stronger statement.
NANews has already analyzed the broader topic of Jewish servicemen in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There arose a similar problem: there is no official statistics of the Ukrainian army by nationality, so the picture has to be assembled from individual people, community publications, military obituaries, awards, and unit reports.
“Hasid” is one of the rare cases when a person is simultaneously quite well-known and almost completely anonymous.
He met with Zelensky
There is another detail that poorly matches the image of a completely “shadow” serviceman.
On April 6, 2026, Volodymyr Zelensky met with rabbis of Ukrainian cities and representatives of Jewish communities on the eve of Passover. Among the participants was a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the call sign “Hasid.”
NANews wrote about this meeting separately.
That is, we have a person whose real name is still not mentioned, but who is allowed to an official event with the president of the country as a representative of that part of the Jewish community that directly participates in the defense of Ukraine.
For a public biography, this is a rather unusual combination.
He can be shown next to the president.
You can talk about awards.
You can discuss his work as an instructor.
But you cannot name the name and explain what exactly he is doing now.
After Asman’s message, this contrast became even more noticeable.
The Jewish line here is not decorative
The call sign “Hasid” was not invented by journalists.
The serviceman himself openly spoke about his Jewish identity and religious tradition. Asman now directly calls him a person of his community.
The rabbi had previously talked about Jews serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and relations between Ukraine and Israel. Over the years of war, this topic has long ceased to be limited to a few well-known names.
Jews of Ukraine found themselves in combat units, territorial defense, medical service, volunteer structures, and army chaplaincy.
There are also those who have died.
In a large material on August 29, 2026, NANews collected stories of Jews and people with Israeli biographies who died defending Ukraine. The open name list remains incomplete. Representatives of Jewish structures name numbers significantly exceeding the number of cases that can be independently restored from publications.
This is a separate problem of any attempt to count “Jews in the Armed Forces of Ukraine”: the army does not divide its servicemen in public statistics by religion and nationality.
Therefore, the story of each specific person acquires an unusually large significance.
There are also chaplains
In the Ukrainian army, the Jewish component has long existed not only at the level of individual fighters.
NANews talked about the orthodox Jew Yakov Sinyakov, who became a military chaplain. There are other representatives of Jewish military clergy.
This is already an institutional part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The religious community accompanies its servicemen not only through humanitarian aid or public prayers. There are chaplains, official contacts with military leadership, funerals of the deceased according to Jewish rites, and people like “Hasid,” who combine religious identity with professional military service.
Therefore, Asman’s current message looks different if you read it not separately, but within this story.
He congratulates not a random Jew who found himself in the army.
He writes about a person of his community who has been present in the military context for many years and now, according to the rabbi, received a distinction for special tasks of the high command.
What is connected with Israel here
“Hasid” indeed has an Israeli part of his biography.
But to conclude from this that we have an “Israeli fighting for Ukraine” would be inaccurate.
In known publications, he appears primarily as a serviceman of Ukraine. Israel appears as part of his experience, training, and Jewish biography.
For the Israeli audience, something else is more important.
Over the years of war, a whole layer of people has emerged whose lives physically connect the two countries. Some repatriated to Israel but returned to defend Ukraine. Some have children serving in the IDF while the parents are in the Ukrainian army. Some gained military experience in Israel and then apply it in Ukraine. There are those who died with dual or complex Ukrainian-Israeli biographies.
This is not a single group and not one political story.
“Hasid” is another example of such a connection, and one of the most closed.
NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency has been collecting these biographies for several years precisely because official Ukrainian-Israeli relations do not explain everything that happens between the two societies.
Diplomacy may argue about weapons, Russia, or votes at the UN.
And all this time, people serve, fight, die, and receive awards.
And what do we really know in the end
There is a message from Moshe Reuven Asman.
He claims that “Hasid” became a full holder of the “Star of Glory.”
There is a specific wording of the basis: the execution of special tasks of the high command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
There is a GUR award with exactly this name.
It is officially one of the highest departmental distinctions of military intelligence and has I and II degrees.
There is a long-standing public history of “Hasid” as an instructor and serviceman.
There is his confirmed participation in Zelensky’s meeting with Jewish leaders.
There is a connection with Asman’s community.
There is an Israeli part of his military biography, but without confirmation of popular formulations about specific service in the Israeli special forces.
And there is a large void where the most interesting begins: what exactly special tasks he performed.
Open sources do not provide an answer to this question.
And for now, this is perhaps the only part of the story that really should not be filled with guesses.