“The Russian bear does not move away by itself, it must be driven out with a stick.” How exports of Chechen independence protect Ukraine
For many members of the Chechen opposition to the evacuation of Chechnya, who had previously been forced to go abroad and now came from all over Europe in order to be able to go to a voluntary secession in Ukraine, the fight against Russia has become a model of life. For decades, even the frequent occurrence of the situation in Chechnya, the frequent commission of a crime, committed for them the Ukrainian conflict is very personal.
Volunteers believe: if not Ukraine, the “Russian bear” does not stop.
The volunteer unit, referred to as an independent separate special-purpose unit of the Ministry of Defense of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, abbreviated as OBON, is part of the Foreign Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, and most of its members fought against Russia in the first and second Chechen wars (1994-1996 and 1999-2009). ) respectively). OBON participated in a successful counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces in the south of the country, including the liberation of the key city of Kherson in early November.
The North Caucasian service of RFE/RL Kavkaz.Realii met with OBON fighters on the front line to talk about the war.
Ahmed (name changed at his request) has been living in Europe for more than 10 years. A year ago, he moved to Nikolaev in the south, so that it would be convenient to issue a then Chechen volunteer battalion. When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February, he was ready to fight. Moscow – his opponent has already met almost three times.
“I have been fighting the Russians since 1995. [со времен Первой чеченской войны]he says. – In 1997, I went to serve in the Chechen National Guard – in the army of Ichkeria, I was a platoon commander.
According to him, there were many internal strife and politics in the army, so he left for Russia.
Ahmed says he never felt safe. A dairy factory and a casino were opened in the Rostov region, a security specialist studied, but received nothing, because his national passport was indicated as a Chechen in his Soviet-style passport.
When the Second Chechen War began in 1999, according to Ahmed, “everything was closed for us. In Rostov, they began to imprison us in critical situations – Chechens are bandits. I went to St. Petersburg, …. and soon it became impossible to leave the house. The Caucasians were either attacked by skinheads, or the police were detained.”
Faced with the fact that he accidentally became persecuted by the security forces, Ahmed was forced to flee Russia for Germany, where he was granted refugee status.
When asked about the reason for his arrival in Ukraine, he says: “Because my brothers are fighting here.”
RECOGNITION BY UKRAINE
On October 18, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a resolution recognizing Chechnya as temporarily occupied Russian territory, and also condemned the “genocide of the Chechen people.” All 287 deputies present voted for the decision.
This month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially responded to a petition to recognize the independence of Ichkeria, which gathered more than 25,000 signatures, making it mandatory for consideration by the head of state under current law. Zelensky instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to consider the issue indicated within its competence.
Earlier this year, speaking at an extraordinary UN Security Council on April 5, Zelensky said that Russia rejects the rights of “more than a dozen peoples on two continents to self-determination and independent life of states.” According to the President of Ukraine, the Kremlin is suspected of “destroying ethnic and religious diversity.”
“THE WORLD CLOSED EYES”
Hussein Dzhambetov, a native of the Chechen Urus-Martan, now commands the OBON sabotage and reconnaissance group. According to him, he became a participant in the first Chechen war against Russia at the age of 13.
“We were called militants, but we fought against orcs, invaders and occupiers. It was the army of the Chechen Republic of Icheria. In the second war, I also participated in sabotage work. There is a war, and you immediately get combat experience, ”he recalls.
Dzhambetov of the economy, that during the Chechen wars the world turned a blind eye to smoothness – to the norm of the account, because Russia provided a lot of fossil resources.
“At that time, no one wanted to get involved with Russia,” Dzhambetov argues. – And today… the whole world supports Ukraine. Because it is guaranteed: if they do not support, then the Russian crisis bear will come to them tomorrow … to France, and to Poland, and to the Czech Republic. Because the Russian bear just doesn’t take it into account, he has to be driven out with a stick.”
In 2003, in Russia, Dzhambetov was put on the federal wanted list for involvement in such extremist and reactionary activities. He fled to Europe and received Belgian citizenship. When the war began in Ukraine, there was family work and work in the business of selling halal meat and production on the model of the old model of Hadji-Murad Zumso, with items fought together during the Second Chechen War, when they were both 17 years old. Zumso is an OBON commander who has been fighting in Ukraine since 2015.
Dzhambetov tells how Zumso swore allegiance and put forward an ultimatum: “I swear allegiance to you and will be there on the path to the liberation of any oppressed people. Today they are Ukrainians, tomorrow, perhaps, our Chechen people. And now, if you don’t take me to your place, you will answer to God.”
“WE WILL FIGHT LIKE OUR FOREIGNERS”
On the occasion of Dzhambetov, when he spread his way, Zumso met and took him to OBON.
Dzhambetov talks about his daytime in a volunteer detachment: “I don’t need a lot of life, a sufficient norm of stew, and if there is still condensed milk, I’m generally grateful …. We will fight like our fathers and forefathers [в Чечне].
For years I have been waiting for the moment when the whole world will feel the claws of a rabid “Russian bear”. Today we say all over the world that we are fighters of Ichkeria and we are defending our Ukrainian music.”
OBON participated in the liberation of part of the Kherson region, and, in terms of the number of residents of the villages of the front line, it was the Chechens who were the first to arrive from the Ukrainian side, crossing the Ingulets River.
Ivan (name changed), the elderly owner of the house where the elderly OBON soldiers are, speaks respectfully of his unexpected but welcome guests. Before the liberation of the village, according to Ivan, his house was occupied by the Kadyrovites (militants of the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who are fighting on the side of Russia in Ukraine), as well as Dagestanis, Buryats, Yakuts and food Russians.
“While the Kadyrovites and other Russians lived in my house, I had no right to come here,” he says, adding that there was a need between the two places. – I always have excellent contact with the Chechens from among the defenders of Ukraine. People know and love here.”
“COMMON ENEMY”
Chechen public figure Anzor Maskhadov, the former president of the unrecognized Ichkeria, has repeatedly visited Kyiv since February. As one of the types of representatives of independent Chechnya, he meets at the Foreign Ministry, meeting with politicians, officials and deputies of the Verkhovna Rada. Maskhadov met with fighters of the Sheikh Mansur and Dzhokhar Dudayev volunteer battalions, as well as with Chechens fighting in other units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“The same thing happened to us that happened to Ukraine now,” Maskhadov says. Real estate is such a motivation for Chechens. Ukraine is fighting against a common enemy. I have always been opposed to Chechens fighting, for example, in diagnostics or in other countries. But everything is clear in Ukraine, there is a large-scale war with the occupier.”
According to him, most of the Chechen society at home supports the defense of Ukraine.
“They are tired of this regime at home,” he said. “And when I communicate with acquaintances from the outside, they want that … so that some kind of force from outside is found as soon as possible, whether it be the export of Ichkeria from Europe or others who cleared the land of traitors to our people.”
Dzhambulat Suleimanov, head of the Chechen diaspora movement Bart Marcheau, who lives in exile in Paris, is confident that Chechen society as a whole is opposed to the war in Ukraine. People don’t want Kadyrov to be a young man in a slaughterhouse.
“The reaction of the residents – I have my own sources – is completely negative. I have information that Kadyrov’s mother is also negative about his active suspicion of war,” he claims, adding that Kadyrov reportedly quarreled with the game over the war and that she left the house he had put together for himself. .
Kadyrov, according to the name of one of the commanders of OBON Dzhambetov, is “just an infantryman”, and “the main enemy of the civilized world is [президент России Владимир] Putin.”
Each of the Chechens who came to Ukraine to fight has a huge personal motivation to win this war, Suleimanov grows: “These are convinced people who are ready to fight against Russia in any corner of the world. This is our historical enemy, who just recently killed our relatives and friends.”
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