"The Russian bear will never go": Chechens on the Ukrainian side are fighting Putin's military
Created: 11/21/2022, 5:48 p.m
By: Kathrin Reikowski
November 18, 2022, Ukraine, Donetsk: Ukrainian soldiers change their position at an unnamed location in the Donetsk region - hundreds of men from Chechnya are fighting on the Ukrainian side.
(Iconic image) © Roman Chop/AP/dpa-Bildfunk
Thousands of Chechens are fighting in Ukraine: because of Kadyrov on the side of Putin, or as voluntary fighters on the Ukrainian side.
Kyiv - Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has been one of Vladimir Putin's staunchest supporters since the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
Chechen troops are supporting the Russian army and Kadyorov was promoted to colonel general by Putin in early October.
But there are also fighters from Chechnya who are fighting on the side of Ukraine against Russia.
Kadyrov has been one of the biggest supporters of the Russian attack since the beginning of the war © IMAGO/Mikhail Metzel
As
Radio free Europe
reports, the fight against Russia in Ukraine has become a life's work for many Chechens.
Not only Chechens, who lived in Ukraine at the beginning of the war, joined the Ukrainian army.
Chechens have also come from all over Europe.
The volunteer battalion was part of the liberation of Cherson.
Those who speak to the media often choose an alias for fear of persecution by those in power in the Russian republic of Chechnya.
"I'm fighting alongside my brothers in Ukraine," says a man who calls himself Akhmed and lived in Germany before the Ukraine war.
Chechens are fighting for Ukraine - and want to save their own country too
Hundreds of Chechens are fighting alongside Ukraine, said two men with the aliases Thor and Maga who
spoke to the
editorial network Germany .
The two belong to the Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion, which was named after the first Chechen president.
"Thor" therefore said he would not only fight for Ukraine.
“We want to save our motherland,” he says.
“The peoples of the Caucasus want to live in freedom.
We are not Russians.” His homeland has become a “concentration camp with North Korean elements”.
The battalion is currently among the first to advance into newly conquered areas.
"Our job is to storm and clear the area.
After that, other groups come and do their work,” says “Maga” from the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion to
DW
.
He always dreamed of fighting Russia and moved to Ukraine after Crimea was annexed in 2014.
Since the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014, some Chechens living in Ukraine have been fighting Russian separatists in Ukraine - many of them also out of gratitude because Ukraine had taken them in after the Chechen war.
“Ukraine is my home.
It took me and other Chechen refugees in, like other European countries.
In this way, our children could be saved from the cruel murders of the Kremlin," the fighter Kazbek told Deutschlandfunk in 2015.
He said: "I don't see any contradiction in the fact that I'm fighting for the freedom of Ukraine and for the freedom of my people.
Both complement each other.”
Ukraine Recognizes Chechen Independence Aspirations - 'The Russian Bear Never Leaves'
According to information from
Radio free Europe
, the Ukrainian government in Kiev is supporting independence efforts in Chechnya in its own way: in October 2022 a law was passed recognizing the Chechen region of Ichkeria as independent from Russia.
Ichkeria was proclaimed an independent state by separatists in Chechnya in 1991, but was never recognized internationally.
In October 1999, this de facto independence was ended by Russian troops in the second Chechen war.
Since then there has been a self-proclaimed government in exile.
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As Khusein Dzhambetov, commander of the Ichkerian battalion in Ukraine, told
Radio Free Europe
, the world was not ready to rise up against Russia in the Chechen wars.
That has now changed in the Ukraine war.
“It's because everyone knows that tomorrow the crazy Russian bear will come to them if they don't stop it... to France, Poland, Czech Republic.
The Russian bear never leaves, it has to be chased away with a stick,” said the man, who is one of hundreds of Chechens who are volunteers fighting in Ukraine.
