When many people around the world turn on the news and read the word "Chechnya", they may think of the Kadyrovites or the Akhmat forces, in fact, two more Chechen forces fighting Putin's army in Ukraine, who call themselves the "Chechen Free Army".
For centuries, Moscow has been waging an uphill struggle to avoid losing control of the lands it has conquered.
Now, as Putin unleashes another war in Ukraine with the aim of regaining "historical territory", many of its enemies are already fighting on the battlefield with the Ukrainians against their common enemy, Russia.
Many are from the Caucasus, a region where Russia fought its most recent war before Ukraine. Hence the presence of units such as the Georgian Legion, as well as the Chechen battalion named after the Chechen warlord and folk hero Sheikh Mansour in the 18th century.
Aslan Ocherkhadzhiev, a 43-year-old Chechen war veteran who lives in Norway, said he came to Ukraine to shoot at his old enemies who had suppressed his people in the war in Chechnya and deprived them of their independent state.
As a result of this battle, we have lost our independence," he said. "This dream of independence has always existed in my heart, just as it exists in many Chechens who end up in Europe and other countries.
Ocherkhazhiyev welcomes the Kyiv Independent at a mosque near a front-line town in the Donetsk region. Some of his companions in the Sheikh Mansur camp were also nearby. Their vehicles, including armored ones, were parked outside. They look well-equipped and have high quality, well-maintained**.
Ocherkhatiev was tall and broad, with a long beard and gray marks. The middle finger of his right hand was missing, which didn't seem to affect the strong grip he had when shaking hands.
The battalion may be closer in strength to a regiment, and its name is derived from a religious and military leader, and Mansur is remembered for uniting the Caucasus against the growing presence of Russians.
He tried to stop the expansion of the Russian Empress Catherine the Great into the Caucasus in the late 1700s. When Russia sent troops to hunt him down, he declared war on the Empire. After many years of fighting with the ** people, he was captured and taken to Russia, where he died in prison.
Russia then fought with the peoples of the Caucasus for more than 60 years. It eventually annexed the regions that would later become Chechnya and Ingushetia, and the Soviet Union would retain control of Ingushetia.
In 1991, at the helm of Dzhokhar Dudayev, parts of the region began to fight for more independence. Another Chechen battalion fighting in Ukraine is named after him.
The Sheikh Mansour battalion is mainly made up of veterans of the Chechen war against Russia, mainly Chechens, but there are also other nationalities. Most are Muslims, but Ocherhagiyev said there are people of other faiths as well.
We don't divide people by religion and nationality, that's one of our principles," he said. According to Ocherkhagiev, many Muslims in the unit follow ordinary traditions such as prayers, but do not have any radical involvement.
Aslan said that the battalion did not receive any financial support from Ukraine** and relied on volunteers and donors, including Ukrainians and Chechens. Although the unit coordinates with the regular Ukrainian army, it does not receive orders from the regular Ukrainian army.
One of the reasons why the unit works well is because the fighters know each other well and work well together like a well-oiled machine. It contains several companies and special tactical groups of special operations. In addition to training Ukrainians, these formations took part in some of the heaviest battles of the war, such as the suburb of Mutter.
But one enemy that the Sheikh Mansour battalion did not face in the battle was other Chechens who worked for Russia and were loyal to Putin's pocket warlord Ramzan Kadyrov. Throughout the full-scale invasion, they were notorious for being more socially active than on the battlefield.
We didn't meet them," said Ocherkhadzhiev. "We are on the zero line, the first line and the second line, and they are somewhere on the third or fifth line, far away," he said. "Sometimes they got lost, went astray, captured or died under artillery fire.
Nevertheless, the alleged brutality and mass robbery of the civilian population by Kadyrov's fighters earned them notoriety.
For pro-Ukrainian Chechen fighters, when many people around the world turn on the news and read the word "Chechnya", they may think of the Kadyrovites or the Akhmat forces, who are all fighting for Russia or pretending to fight for Russia, which makes pro-Ukrainian Chechen fighters uncomfortable.
A huge ** propaganda machine of the Russian Empire is dedicated to creating the image of these radical Chechen villains who are attacking Ukraine, creating the image that they are some kind of independent ally of Russia.
Chechen freedom fighters do not consider the Kadyrovites or the Akhmat forces to be independent people. "We are volunteers, there is no salary, there is no material motivation," Ocherkhadiev said. We came here from a quiet, measured life, risking our lives, and I think that must show the world that when the Chechens are truly independent, they will choose this side. ”