KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Kneeling in a patch of yellow wildflowers, a Chechen soldier fastidiously attaches an explosive machine to the underside of a small drone. Seconds later, it’s launched. It explodes subsequent to two outdated storefront mannequins arrange 200 meters (yards) away, one with a Russian-style navy hat on its head.
After this and different coaching outdoors the Ukrainian capital, the Chechen troopers, in assorted camouflage footwear and protecting gear, can be heading to the front lines in Ukraine, vowing to proceed the struggle towards Russia that raged for years of their North Caucasus homeland.
Fighters from Chechnya, the war-scarred republic in southern Russia, are taking part on each side of the battle in Ukraine.
Pro-Kyiv volunteers are loyal to Dzhokhar Dudayev, the late Chechen chief who headed the republic’s drive for independence from Russia. They type the “Dudayev Battalion” and are the sworn enemies of Chechen forces who again Russian President Vladimir Putin and joined Russia within the months-long siege of Ukraine’s key port of Mariupol and different flashpoints in japanese and southern Ukraine.
One group of new Chechen arrivals, many of whom stay in Western Europe, was being skilled at a makeshift firing vary outdoors Kyiv earlier than heading east. At a coaching session Saturday, the brand new recruits ‒ all Muslim males ‒ shouted “Allahu akbar!” (“God is great!”), holding their rifles within the air earlier than being handed navy ID playing cards which might be issued to volunteers.
Ukrainian officers say the Chechen battalion at the moment numbers a number of hundred who struggle alongside the nation’s navy however aren’t formally underneath the nationwide command.
Instructors educate the brand new battalion members fight fundamentals, together with how to use a weapon, assume a firing place and the way to work in groups. Trainers embody veterans of wars in Chechnya that resulted in 2009, some becoming a member of up in Ukraine after the preventing towards Russia-backed separatists began in Ukraine in 2014.
Tor, a volunteer who requested solely to be recognized by his battlefield nickname, mentioned he sees no distinction between the 2 conflicts.
“People have to understand we don’t have a choice,” he mentioned talking in English and along with his face lined. “If they (Russian forces) win this war, they will continue. They never stop. I don’t know. The Baltic countries will be next, or Georgia or Kazakhstan. Putin openly, absolutely, says he wants to rebuild the Soviet empire.”
Russia launched two wars to forestall Chechnya, a largely Muslim province, from gaining independence after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. The first battle erupted in 1994.
The second Chechen war started in 1999 and culminated in a siege by Russian troops of Grozny, the Chechen capital, which was devastated by heavy Russian bombardment. After years of battling an insurgency, Russian officers declared the battle in Chechnya over in 2017.
Muslim Madiev, a veteran fighter of the Chechen conflicts, recognized himself as an adviser to the volunteer battalion in Ukraine. He joined the troopers Saturday in capturing observe, taking purpose at a plastic bottle held up on a stick. Bullet casings flew from his automated rifle onto a discipline already suffering from bullets, shotgun cartridges and cardboard goal sheets.
“We’re going to win this war. The whole world is already standing up for us,” he says, talking in Russian.
“We were the only ones who fought for ourselves (in Chechnya). No one stood with us. But now the whole world is behind Ukraine. We must win, we must win,” he declared. ___ Follow AP’s protection of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine