Chechens and the Stigma of Serving Russia in Ukraine
From the very beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, there was serious concern about Putin’s use of Chechen and Syrian soldiers in the battles. Specifically, Chechens were employed and are being employed by Russian army commanders in serious conflicts and massacres because fighting and killing their fellow speakers is not so easy for Russian soldiers. Images and documents of the massacre of Ukrainians by Chechen soldiers, alongside the passionate speeches of their leader Ramzan Kadyrov, presented a dark image of the Caucasus Muslims.
From Soldier Doubts to Soldier Shortages
The initial aggressive Russian campaign was announced as a special operation in Ukraine, meaning Putin did not want to officially declare war. To this day, he has refrained from officially declaring war on Ukraine. Such a development means both fighting their fellow Russian speakers and bringing Russia into a wartime state. Russian citizens, as well as various political and economic elites, do not accept such a situation. In a non-war situation, recruiting soldiers can be done by hiring them or taking public service soldiers to the battlefield. In an economy under sanctions, the Russian army pays high amounts to recruit soldiers, and naturally, soldiers from all spectrums and age groups have been recruited. This costly recruitment is one of Russia’s problems. However, the main and most important problem is that Putin started a battle as a special operation that was supposed to see Ukrainians welcoming their Russian brothers with open arms, Ukraine being occupied, and Volodymyr Zelensky being killed, with a Moscow-appointed leader taking his place in Kyiv. This did not happen. Russian soldiers showed serious doubts about fighting Ukrainians on multiple occasions. By the third and fourth months of the aggression, it was clear that Russia was suffering losses and needed to recruit more soldiers.
Kadyrov and the Chechens on the Battlefield
At the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, Ramzan Kadyrov announced that Chechens would not join Russian soldiers, but exactly the day after, the dispatch of Chechens began. Within a few weeks, numerous videos and documents of Chechens fighting Ukrainians in bloody battles were published. One of the bitter instances was the release of a series of videos of a Chechen unit fighting a small, exhausted group of Ukrainian defenders, where after massacring the Ukrainians, the Chechens held a congregational prayer. These news and documents, alongside reports of Russia bringing Syrian mercenaries into the Ukrainian battlefield, severely damaged the image of Muslims in Eastern Europe.
Real and Unreal
In the recent months, many cases of war crimes in Ukraine have been attributed to Chechens, but Russia itself played a significant role in widely disseminating documents related to Chechen crimes. Gradually, some concluded that Russia attributed many massacres committed by its soldiers to the Chechens. Recent investigations have shown that only 53% of the soldiers Kadyrov sent in his units to Ukraine are Chechen and Muslim. Ukrainian security teams have published documents on this and warned that Russians are attributing their crimes to the Chechens, although there is no doubt about the tragedy of forcing Chechens to commit numerous crimes in Ukraine by the Russians.
The End of July Tragedy
Russian activists on social media, who publish images and videos of Ukrainians being killed to intimidate and influence the Ukrainian people, released images of a mutilated Ukrainian soldier at the end of July, which was the most unprecedented example of war crimes in Ukraine. The violence of this event was so severe that a special investigative team, which discovered the identity of the murderers, did not dare to broadcast the videos, although Russian activists repeatedly published these videos to intimidate. The investigative team managed to identify the main killer and the individuals involved in the violent murder of the Ukrainian captive. Unfortunately, members of the Akhmat military unit, which is part of the Chechen forces, were responsible for this disaster.
There is hope for a serious shift in the approach of Islamic countries towards Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, and at least an opportunity to influence Russia’s policy of using Chechen and Syrian soldiers can be provided.