“Allah Akbar”. The videos show Chechen soldiers, loyal to Kadyrov and thus to Putin, fighting in Mariupol and shouting Allah Akbar. Paradoxes of this invasion, considering that Putin, the architect of the deployment of Chechens to Ukraine, quoted the Bible yesterday in the Oceanic gathering, while on several occasions his Western supporters have called it a bulwark of Christian values.
It is no coincidence that Putin and his war were blessed even by Kirill, the Patriarch of the Moscow Orthodox Church, a fundamentalist and supporter of the invasion of Ukraine, because in his opinion he opposes ways of life contrary to Christian tradition. Meanwhile, “Allah akbar” is shouted by Chechen soldiers sent by Putin to Mariupol, as happened in 2014 when they were sent to the Donbass to support pro-Russian separatists.
The cruelty of the Chechen soldiers is well known, in their region they fought two terrible wars against Moscow: however, the current leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, President of Chechnya, has become a loyalist of Putin, who had fought against the Russians who fled abroad and a part of which the latter would be in Ukraine to resist the invasion. But a much larger number of Chechens fighting in Ukraine are loyal to Kadyrov’s, and thus Putin’s, army; takes part in the extremely harsh operation in Mariupol, where the Ukrainian resistance is now at its last frontier and where the main victims are civilians left without food, water and heating, prisoners in a war waged street by street.
Many analysts agree: Putin sent Chechens, as well as Syrian militias or the military of the Russian Federation from distant areas. Why? A soldier originally from Rostov, for example, would feel too connected, too involved with the Ukrainian population. The Chechens also have enough experience and ruthlessness for the next phase of this invasion, which will lead to occupation but also to guerrilla dangers. For example, it will be necessary to control Mariupol using brutal methods that have already been tested in Chechnya.
According to a lengthy article on analysis site The Conversation: “Kadyrov leads tens of thousands of men known as Kadyrovtsy. No other federated entity in the Russian Federation has a force of this size. Although the Kadyrovtsy are members of the Russian National Guard, they remain under the exclusive command of Kadyrov, who also holds the title of Major General. But the deployment of Chechens and general troops from different ethnic groups can be a double-edged sword for Putin. First, the official line, according to which there is no invasion, no aggression going on in Ukraine, but a simple “military special operation”, is clearly dismantled.
In The Convesation’s analysis we read: «The role of the Kadyrovtsy in the conflict in Ukraine is anything but one-dimensional. Aside from the terror they incite, they also embody the total devotion the federated subjects have to Putin. However, this idyllic picture could shatter if the war turns out to be longer and more difficult than expected. Deploying these troops is a risky bet. Their poor integration into the chain of command could diminish the benefits of serving alongside regular Russian army units. In addition, dissent could grow from the different areas of the Russian Federation (but not of Russian ethnicity) that sent the young soldiers and are seeing the greatest casualties, especially as the war continues and the death toll rises.
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