A possible new jihadist front in the conflict on Ukrainian soil. What is it?

When the conflict between Ukraine and Russia erupted last February, in an instrumental manner, as is often the case, jihadist organizations and groups put forward their views on the conflict, expressing different opinions.  From the very beginning, many wondered whether on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war the jihadists could find a deployment to continue fighting in other areas of operation.

As far as the Russian deployment is concerned, this is unlikely to happen, since Russia is seen unequivocally and jointly by the entire jihadist galaxy as an enemy and an oppressor to be fought and hit. What is different, however, is the possibility of fighting in support of the Ukrainian deployment, since many independent or HTS-aligned jihadist groups that have been operating in the Ukrainian context over the past decade, being composed of Chechen, Dagestani, Tatar, Uzbek, Tajik, etc. fighters, see Russia as the main enemy of their operational targets.

Muslim fighters at the front?

The ongoing conflict has made the phenomenon of foreign fighters re-emerge, raising growing concerns and important questions regarding security and analysis of the phenomenon of jihadist terrorism. The presence of foreign fighters in Ukraine is not a recent phenomenon. Already since 2015, battalions have emerged to fight on the Ukrainian front the Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion and the Sheikh Mansur battalion are two important Chechen groups, strongly anti-Russian, which have been fighting in Ukraine against Russia for some time.

Chechen fighters appeared on the side of the Ukrainians and against the Russians in 2015 when Chechen Muslim battalions were formed as part of the “Ukrainian Volunteer Battalions” to face the pro-Russian separatist movements and later from February 2022 the Russian invasion.

Most of these fighters had fled Chechnya after the fall of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 2009, having fought fierce battles with the Russians for several years in the Chechen wars.

The “Shaykh Mansur International Peacekeeping Battalion” is a non-governmental volunteer armed formation that takes part in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine alongside the Ukrainian security forces and is mainly composed of Chechens who emigrated from Russia after the Chechen conflict. The battalion is named after Shaykh Mansur who led the resistance against the Russian expansionism of Tsarina Catherine the Great during the late 18th century. The figure of Shaykh Mansur remains a symbol of resistance to external invasion both in Chechnya and in the entire North Caucasus region and often recurs in local jihadist propaganda along with other figures such as Imam Shamil to call for unity and exhort Muslims to take up arms against Russian central authority. The battalion is led by Muslim Cheberloevsky. The leaders of the battalion have repeatedly called on Chechens, Dagestanis, and Ingush to join the “International Legion” in Ukraine and fight against the Russian armed forces.

The “Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion” was formed by Issa Munayev in 2014 as an “international peacekeeping battalion” to fight against pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. It is mainly composed of Chechens who emigrated from Russia after the Second Chechen Conflict and many volunteer emigrants from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. The battalion is named after Dzhokhar Dudayev, the first president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, who was killed in 1996 by Russian armed forces. Currently, the battalion is led by Adam Osmaev.

For many fighters from the Caucasus or Central Asian areas belonging to the former Soviet Union, the war in Ukraine is only the next phase of the war against Russia or liberating the area from Russian influence. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is therefore a new arena to confront the Russians. The choice of Ukraine is obvious because the current situation allows the flow of volunteer battalions, some of which have received official recognition, enabling them to operate organizationally away from state control and receive the support of ordinary citizens.

Fighting in Ukraine, alongside the battalions, the “Foreign Legion” and the Ukrainian army, many fighters from the Kurdish militia of the People's Defence Unit (YPG) have arrived in recent months. In particular, numerous YPG veterans have travelled to Ukraine to fight alongside the Kyiv army, but it is unclear in which role.

The Syrian rebel opposition has also openly condemned Russia and in particular, the Muslims fighting alongside it, especially Kadyrovtsy. The reason for the opposition is related to the events in the Syrian theatre, as Russia is President Bashar al-Assad’s closest ally in his war against the Syrian rebels. Commander Al-Farouq Abu Bakr, whom I had the opportunity to interview, confirmed their strong siding against Russia by wishing for its defeat, but also denied rumours circulating that Syrian fighters were being used in the conflict:

“There is no talk of transferring Syrian fighters from the revolution and the national army to fight with the Ukrainian army, even though Russia and its army are a brutal enemy, an occupier, a murderer of innocents, and that the victims of this war are the Ukrainian people, as in the case of my country, Syria. We hope for a failure of Russia, which intervened in my country and sided with the criminal Assad regime against the demands of the Syrian people. We hope that now European countries and the United States of America will reconsider the Syrian issue and provide military support so that we will reopen new battles in which we will liberate regions from the Assad regime and inflict heavy losses on the Russian enemy”.

Russia in turn sought to swell its military ranks on the Ukrainian front by exploiting Syria's support. The Syrian media and government have tried to attract volunteers willing to help Russia’s cause. Russia through private partners and the government in Damascus through the media and recruitment outlets tried to recruit volunteer fighters, also offering major contracts that included a salary of $1,000 or $1.5 thousand up to $3,000 and up to $7,000 for wounded fighters, food rations for the volunteers’ families and an insurance payment for the family of $15,000 if the volunteer died during the fighting. Despite the mobilization efforts, Russia's goal of flooding Ukraine with foreign fighters failed, the response was poor, only about 500 Syrian fighters were sent to the front, mostly members of the al-Sayyad Security Company forces and members of the 8th Brigade artillery company, deployed on the Kherson front.

Recently, a personal source present at the front of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict told me that: “there are reports of fighters being moved from Iran and Afghanistan to fight alongside the Russians”, but no concrete evidence we have to that effect.

Jihadists in the conflict?

The jihadist world immediately responded to the outbreak of the conflict as early as February in propaganda terms but took different attitudes towards it.

Those, on the other hand, who were immediately clear in their statements were the smaller jihadist groups operating in Syria, composed of Caucasian, Tatar, Uzbek, Tajik, etc. fighters, who have always focused their jihadist operations primarily against their number one enemy, the “Russian oppressor”. Many of the statements or responses I received from foreign jihadist fighters operating in Syria were: “Many Chechen jihadists in Idlib want to be part of the Muslim fighters fighting the Russians in Ukraine” or “If Western governments had supported Chechen fighters, the war in Ukraine would not have happened” and in some cases “we just want to have the opportunity to fight the Russians wherever they are”.

The first real major change occurred last October 2022, when one of the most important Chechen commanders and a veteran jihadist, Abdul Hakim al-Shishani, leader of the Ajnad al-Kavkaz group, “Soldiers of the Caucasus”, reached the Ukrainian front.

Abdul Hakim al-Shishani left the Latakia countryside with about 30 of his men to fight the Russians, the primary objective of the group's leadership, which is why they went to Syria to fight. But the reasons also lie in the difficult relationship with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as confirmed to me by a Syrian jihadist source: “At first, they fought Russia in Syria, but in the last two years, HTS has been chasing and restricting them; therefore, they found going to Ukraine an opportunity to get rid of HTS persecution”.

Rustam Azhiev, known as Abdul Hakim al-Shishani, is first and foremost a veteran of the Chechen wars. Born in 1981 in a small settlement near Grozny, he joined the Chechen resistance as a private shortly after the start of the Second Chechen War in 1999 and quickly rose through the ranks to become military superintendent of the central sector of the then Chechen territory controlled by the Caucasus Emirate in 2007. In 2009, after being seriously wounded in battle by the Russians, by then the near victors of the second Chechen war, he left Chechnya and fled to Turkey, from where he reached Syria in late 2012 with a group of Chechen war veterans and his loyalists. In 2013, Abdul Hakim founded Jama’at al-Khilafa al-Qawqazia and started to operate militarily. In 2015, with Russia’s intervention in Syria, Abdul Hakim al-Shishani and his group merged with another Chechen group Jama'at Jund al-Qawqaz, forming Ajnad al-Kavkaz, and continued to operate actively in the countryside, mountains, and forests of Latakia province, while remaining relatively independent. However, as the group operated mainly in Idlib and Latakia provinces, where Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has been dominant since 2017, clashes with it were inevitable, leading to the decision to move to another theatre of operations. Instead, in 2019, Ajnad al-Kavkaz fought alongside another independent jihadist group, Ansar al-Tawhid, in Hama Governorate. During the Syrian army’s government offensive in northwestern Syria in 2020, Ajnad al-Kavkaz snipers took part in the defence of Jabal Zawiya. Since then, the group continued to operate in Syria, but only in cooperation with Malhama Tactical, until the decision to move in recent months. Abdul Hakim al-Shishani reached Ukraine, after having passed through Turkey, following coordination with the leadership of the Sheikh Mansur Battalion and the leadership of the Chechen government-in-exile of the Republic of Ichkeria.

Pictures spread on Twitter, Telegram and the video of the meeting on YouTube, of members of the Chechen government-in-exile of the Republic of Ichkeria with Ajnad al-Kavkaz leader Abdul Hakim al-Shishani in the centre.

Last October, then, the Chechen fighter leader Akhmed Zakayev, who leads the Chechen government-in-exile of the Republic of Ichkeria, appointed Abdul Hakim al-Shishani as his deputy, tasking him to supervise the Chechen forces currently fighting alongside the Ukrainian army. The full video shared by Zakayev himself on his official channel is available on YouTube, in which the jihadist leader of Ajnad al-Kavkaz can be seen sitting by his side.

Akhmed Zakayev and Abdul Hakim al-Shishani

Together with the Ajnad al-Kavkaz leader, some 20 fighters arrived, including many of his trusted lieutenants. Later, another 70 fighters left Syria and reached Ukraine.

Later, the Telegram channel of Zakayev’s group shared a photo showing a Ukrainian passport that had been issued to Abdul Hakim Al-Shishani.

In the following days, Zakayev's YouTube channel shared a long video showing Abdul Hakim Al-Shishani alongside another Chechen leader, Abdulаh Ortkhanov, Minister of State of the Chechen Republic in Exile of Ichkeria. In the video, Zakayev states that the Verkhovna Rada, the unicameral parliament of Ukraine, has recognized the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

An image of the Youtube video circulated by Ahmed Zakayev with Abdul Hakim Al-Shishani and Abdulаh Ortkhanov at his side.

In the same days, statements by a veteran commander of the Ajnad al-Kavkaz group and an important lieutenant of Abdul Hakim, known as Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Shishani, also circulated within Telegram channels, who reported that many of the group’s fighters are leaving Syria for Ukraine, as they are under severe repercussions from HTS. The Russian-Ukrainian war has created an opportunity for them to leave Idlib. 

Apart from the Ajnad al-Kavkaz fighters, we have no video or photographic evidence of other jihadist groups or fighters who have travelled to Syria.

The author interviewed several sources, one present on the Russian-Ukrainian side of the conflict claimed: “On the Ukrainian side, I met live more than 10 people who were part of different jihadist groups, in addition to those of Abdul Hakim’s group, and there are plans for more to arrive. The GUR is also aware of this, they are fighting alongside the regular forces, in Chechen and Dagestani groups”. A source close to jihadist affairs in Syria told me that: “Apart from Ajnad al-Kavkaz, there are no groups that have travelled to Ukraine, only individual jihadist fighters who have reached it through smuggling routes, all from Syria and Chechnya, wanting revenge against the Russians”.

Conclusions

The motivations that drive the jihadists to fight Russia on all fronts are varied: “We go to Ukraine to fight the Russians who have killed and committed the most heinous crimes against our people”, “Russia continues to practice violence against every Muslim”, “Russia has killed the Syrian people whom we have come to support”, “Every enemy of Russia is our friend”.

Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Shishani on Telegram specified that in Ukraine there is the possibility of clashing with Russian forces face-to-face on the ground, unlike in Syria, where the Russians mainly used aircraft.

In the following posts on Telegram groups related to the battalions and leaders mentioned above, it is emphasized that Abdul Hakim al-Shishani and his group are veteran fighters, trained and experienced in guerrilla warfare, frontline and rugged area warfare, clandestine activities, sabotage operations and urban and rural guerrilla warfare, guerrilla warfare in the mountains and forests, all of which have been conducted in Syria for the past nine years. Like them, the various jihadist groups on Syrian territory made up of Chechens, Dagestani, Tatars, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Kyrgyz, have decades of experience in jihadism and could be an important weapon in the quagmire of the ongoing conflict. Many of them, like the Chechen Junud al-Sham fighters led by Muslim al-Shishani, who is also repressed by HTS and have been inactive for over a year, could decide to move from the village of al-Yaqubiyah, near the town of Jisr Al-Shughur, where they have taken refuge, and leave for a new war front and new opportunities that would allow them to continue the jihadist struggle and the clash with the Russians in other theatres.

Of course, the conflict in Ukraine offers concrete opportunities not only from an ideological and military point of view. Many fighters, just as Abdul Hakim al-Shishani did, have obtained a new passport and identity, which can be bought for several thousand dollars, thus obtaining a new name and a new document officially proving his Ukrainian citizenship and bypassing counterterrorism or security control issues.

Appeared on 04/01/2023 on جبهة جهادية جديدة محتملة في الصراع الواقع على أرض أوكرانيا.. ما هي؟ (akhbaralaan.net)

Daniele Garofalo is a researcher and analyst on Jihadist terrorism and an expert in monitoring Jihadist media channels.

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