The Chechens fighting for Ukraine

NATO & its AdversariesTerrorism & Ungoverned SpacesNeo-Populism
Written By David Patrikarakos

“I am here in Ukraine fighting because first the Russians came to my motherland, Chechnya. Now they want to do here what they did to us.” Kazbek has just picked me up from Dnipro station to take me to his base near Bakhmut, where he and his unit are fighting on Ukraine’s bloodiest front. I climb into the back seat, where propped up in the middle is Kazbek’s automatic rifle, the FN SCAR. It’s colossal; and it will set the mood for the next few days.

I first met Kazbek last spring on a Ukrainian military base on the frontline in the Donbas. With his well-tended beard, he looked like a typical Chechen. I was surprised to see him. Chechens in Ukraine were, I thought, all fighting for Russia under orders from their leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin’s psychopathic puppet leader of Chechnya. I was wrong…

David Patrikarakos (Project Lead, Unregulated Cyberspace) for UnHerd.

David Patrikarakos

David Patrikarakos is a writer and a journalist, expert on the use of Social Media in Conflict, Disinformation and Middle East Geopolitics. He is the author of War in 140 Characters - how social media is reshaping conflict in the twenty-first century and Nuclear Iran - the birth of an atomic state. Patrikarakos is a non-resident fellow at the University of St. Andrews.

https://twitter.com/dpatrikarakos
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