Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has relied on outside assistance to withstand the superior military capacities of Russia. While the bulk of this aid has come in the form of weapons and humanitarian supplies, soldiers form another dimension of foreign support. Many ethnic groups with historic grievances against Russia, like Chechens, have taken up arms in Ukraine’s ranks.
Peoples like Chechens, Crimean Tatars, and Ingush, as well as those from former Soviet republics, have decades of historical grievances with Russia. Some see the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to express their anger and further their cause.
Chechnya’s Complex History with Russia
Under Stalin’s regime from the 1920s-50s, many ethnic groups in Russia were brutally repressed and often forcibly deported. The list of peoples deported by Stalin is long, but Chechens, Tatars, other Caucasians and Turkic groups made up large majorities.
The death toll of these deportations is uncertain, but numbers at least in the hundreds of thousands, if not up to 1.5 million. In fact, Ukraine itself recognises the deportation of Crimean Tatars, and that of the Chechen and Ingush peoples, as genocides.
Chechnya was also locked in a military conflict with Russia/the USSR for centuries, the end of which was only proclaimed in 2017 after at least 200 years of recurring uprisings and skirmishes.
Today, the Chechen Republic is led by a man called Ramzan Kadyrov, who has earned himself the nickname of ‘Putin’s attack dog’.
In exchange for his loud and often trigger-happy support, Putin essentially turns a blind eye to how Kadyrov rules in Chechnya – through fear and oppression. Human Rights Watch, and many other NGOs, have repeatedly called for more action in response to the terrifying persecution of LGBT+ individuals in the republic.
Chechens and Other Battalions in Ukraine
Still, many Chechens disagree with this status quo – or at the very least, with Kadyrov’s wholehearted loyalty to Putin, especially given their painful history in Russia.
A Chechen battalion in Ukraine is led by a man named Muslim Madiyev, who fought in two Chechnyan wars with Moscow, and was an associate of Dzhokar Dudayev, a leader of the Chechnyan independence movement in the 90s.
“We saw what was happening,” he said, speaking to the New York Times. “Ukraine has no shortage of men, but we have to join and be a part of this war.” He echoed a popular sentiment among both Ukrainians and other anti-Russian supporters, that if Russia is not stopped in Ukraine, the fate of other European nations is at stake.
For many, like the Chechen battalion, the war is a chance to revolt against their leadership’s closeness with Putin. A battalion of Belarusians, unhappy with Lukashenko’s dictatorship and his alliance with Russia, are a prime example.
But for others, motivations are more personal. Racism against non-White people in Russia is a persistent issue, and migrants from Central Asian, Caucasian and Turkic regions are often on the lowest rungs of social and economic ladders.
This harsh reality is what motivated Almaz Kudabek, a Kyrgyzstani refugee, to form the Turan battalion, recruiting Azerbaijanis, Tatars, and Chinese Uyghurs to the group. “We just want to fight Russians,” he says, “we know what they are.”
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