You're reading: Russia’s war against Ukraine renews Chechen animosities

Chechens, like many other ethnicities, have been divided by Russia’s war against Ukraine.

One group, led by pro-Kremlin Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, has joined Russia’s cause.

Another group, part of the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion, is fighting for Ukraine.

The battalion, set up last March and named after Chechnya’s first president and insurgent leader, views the war as part of a broader struggle against Russian imperialism and the Kadyrov regime, the Kremlin’s main bulwark in the Caucasus.

The unit is currently in legal limbo and has no official status. But its leadership is working on legalizing it as part of the Interior Ministry. The Defense Ministry has also offered its help with legalization but there is “too much bureaucracy there,” Amina Okuyeva, the battalion’s spokeswoman, said in an interview with the Kyiv Post.

During the first stage, a company of 100 fighters will be legalized, she said, adding that the unit was based in Luhansk Oblast.

Okuyeva, clad in camouflage and a Muslim headscarf, could not specify a more specific location and the current number of fighters for security reasons. She also said that the battalion used trophy weapons and got its food and clothing supplies from volunteers.

Though the unit has been called a “Chechen battalion,” ethnic Chechens account for only about 17 percent, while about 70 percent are ethnic Ukrainians. Most of the Chechens are from European countries, including Denmark and Scandinavian nations, but there are also those who come from Chechnya and fought in the First Chechen War (1994-1996) and Second Chechen War (1999-2000).

The battalion also includes other Muslims like Azeris, Ingush and Tatars, as well as Georgians.

The unit’s fighters have different views ranging from secular to religious ones, Okuyeva said.

She praised the Chechen insurgents who are currently fighting against Russian troops in a low-intensity conflict in North Caucasus. “These are rebels who are trying to fight for their homeland in those harsh conditions. We lend them moral support,” she said.

However, she denied any links to either the Caucasus Emirate, North Caucasus’ main Islamist insurgent group led by Ali Abu Mukhammad, or a London-based secular Chechen government-in-exile headed by Akhmad Zakayev.

The battalion’s first commander, Isa Munayev, fought in both Chechen wars and used to be the military governor of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. He was killed on Feb. 1.

“Isa died when he was helping the Ukrainian army to avoid being surrounded in Debaltseve (in Donetsk Oblast),” Okuyeva said. “They went behind enemy lines in the town of Chernukhine. They were surrounded by tanks. Several (Russian) tanks were destroyed. Isa died in that battle.”

She said that Isa had fought with four other fighters of the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion and soldiers of another Ukrainian unit on that day.

“Isa always went ahead and always protected his soldiers during withdrawal,” she said. “The death of the commander was a big blow for us because all of us sincerely loved him. He was not only a good commander but also a good man. He was like a brother to all of us.”

Since Munayev’s death, the battalion has been headed by Adam Osmayev, Okuyeva’s husband. In February 2012 Osmayev was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine and Russia’s Federal Security Service in Odesa and accused of plotting an assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin, then Russia’s prime minister and now president.

Okuyeva believes the investigation to be a fabricated case aimed at boosting Putin’s rating ahead of the March 4, 2012 presidential election. She participated in the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution in Kyiv partially to defend her husband.

In November 2014 Osmayev was found guilty of the illegal use of explosives and document forgery by an Odesa court but he was released since he had already served his term by that time.

For both Munayev and Osmayev, Russia was the archenemy. The battalion’s fighters believe that in Ukraine they are helping their kinsfolk back home.

“It’s the continuation of the same war but on another front,” Osmayeva said. “Yesterday it was Chechnya and Georgia, today it’s Ukraine, there’s no guarantee that tomorrow it won’t be some other country of the civilized world, like the Baltics. As long as the plague of Russian fascism – the Russian Empire – exists, nobody can be safe.”

Osmayeva, who was born in Odesa in 1983 and used to live in Moscow and Chechnya, returned to Ukraine about 12 years ago and saw a sharp contrast between Russia and Ukraine.

“In North Caucasus and in Russia it’s impossible to live in the full sense of the word,” she said. “You can only survive. You have to forget about the freedom of thought, voting rights and the freedom of religion.”

A person can be kidnapped, humiliated or even killed in North Caucasus for Islamic head wear, she said. The authorities of the region have cracked down on people wearing some forms of Islamic clothing and long beards due to their associations with Islamists and their insurgency in North Caucasus.

“In Ukraine even in the most difficult times, even when there was a pro-Russian government here (under former President Viktor Yanukovych), there were no such harsh repressions and no such suppression of people’s will,” Okuyeva said. “Nobody has ever taken issue with my headscarf or my observance of Muslim traditions.”

Meanwhile, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov is even trying to export that form of government to eastern Ukraine, with many of his soldiers fighting for Kremlin-backed separatists. Kadyrov, who is increasingly becoming one of Russia’s most powerful men and developing a cult of personality similar to Putin’s, said in December 2014 he wanted to go to eastern Ukraine as a volunteer himself.

In the same month, Kadyrov told about 20,000 Chechen law enforcement officers in a highly publicized speech at a stadium that they were “Vladimir Putin’s infantry” and should be ready to fight in any part of the world as volunteers – a veiled reference to Ukraine.

Okuyeva said she herself had not encountered any Chechens fighting for Russia. She said that their number was considerably overestimated by the media and did not exceed 500. “There are much more Ossetians there.”

“We don’t call them Chechens on principle,” she added. “These are just Chechen-speaking Russians who are doing Putin’s bidding for a good reward.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at reaganx84@gmail.