09:45 28.04.2015

American mercenaries have made their mark in the North Caucasus. Now they are “watching” in Ukraine. During both military campaigns in Chechnya, the United States provided support to illegal armed groups with both material and human resources.

Bloody trail of mercenaries During the two Chechen wars, mercenaries from 52 foreign countries and almost all regions of the world operated in the North Caucasus. This was stated in 2005, after the end of the active phase of hostilities, by FSB Major General Ilya Shabalkin, who at that time held the position of deputy head of the Regional Operational Headquarters (the structure that coordinated the actions of all Russian security forces in the North Caucasus). “The basis for asserting this is provided by an analysis of the existing operational information,” the general said then. At the same time, the United States was named among the countries whose “envoys” most actively showed themselves in battles on the side of gangs. Also, according to the deputy head of the Regional Headquarters, mercenaries with passports of Canada, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and in addition - persons living in Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia left their bloody trail in Chechnya... According to Sergei Yastrzhembsky, assistant to the President of Russia (2000-2008), by the start of the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus, the number of mercenaries from near and far abroad countries reached, according to various estimates, 800 people. As Yastrzhembsky noted, the connection between the separatists and international Islamic terrorists was clearly established, which, according to the assistant to the head of state, became “one of the main factors influencing the destabilization of the situation in the North Caucasus and in the Chechen Republic in particular.” Accomplices: how US intelligence agencies collaborated with militants Vladimir Putin spoke about the fact that there were direct contacts between militants from the North Caucasus and US intelligence services in the documentary film “President” released this Sunday on the Russia 1 channel. Such connections, according to the head of state, were established by Russian special services. “Once, simply direct contacts were recorded between militants from the North Caucasus and representatives of the United States intelligence service in Azerbaijan,” the Russian leader gave an example. “There they really just helped, even with transport.” Vladimir Putin added that he informed the then-current American president about this, who “promised to look into it.” However, after some time, Washington made it clear that not only would it not punish those responsible for what happened, but it would also encourage such support for the militants with all its might. “Ten days later, our subordinates, the leaders of the FSB, received a letter from their colleagues from Washington: “We have maintained and will maintain relations with all opposition forces in Russia. And we believe that we have the right to do this and will continue to do so in the future,” said the President of Russia. The agreements are still in force According to media reports, over 100 foreign firms (including banking groups), most of which had offices in the USA and Europe, took part in providing material, financial and other assistance to terrorists in the North Caucasus. In the United States alone, about fifty organizations were collecting funds for North Caucasian extremists. Among them are the American Muslim Bar Association, the American Islamic Center, the American Muslim Council, the Islamic Charitable Organization "Voice of Chechnya", the Islamic American Zakat Foundation, Islamic Global Relief, Benevolence International Foundation. In January 2003, the head fund, an American of Eastern origin, Enaam Arnaut, admitted during the investigation that his structure finances militants in Chechnya. It is interesting that before this, in October 2002, US Attorney General Ashcroft charged Arnaut with financing Osama bin Laden, but when the head of the fund said that the money was not going to bin Laden, but to Chechen terrorists, all charges were dropped. Purposeful propaganda and political Amina Network, Human Assistance Development International, and Islamic Information Server companies were involved in activities in the interests of Chechen separatists in the United States. And an organization such as Advantage Associates, Inc. still has an agreement concluded by Aslan Maskhadov with the “Ambassador of Ichkeria to the USA” Lema Osmurov, according to which the organization pledged to “put pressure on the US government in order to support the efforts of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria to winning independence and secession from Russia.” There is also information about direct contacts between representatives of the American leadership and Chechen separatists. Thus, according to some reports, Benjamin Gilman, Chairman of the Committee on International Relations of the House of Representatives of the Congress, met with the so-called “Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ichkeria” Akhmadov. Marked “made in USA” In 2005, former school system official Keefa Jayousi was arrested in Detroit. He was charged with assisting terrorists, conspiring to commit murder and kidnapping outside the United States, and recruiting Islamic militants to fight in Chechnya, Kosovo, Bosnia and Somalia. As the American intelligence services themselves established, funds collected by Jayousi in the United States through the charitable Islamic society Global Relief Foundation were transferred to militants in Chechnya. In 1995 and 1996, Jayousi recruited at least two people for militant groups in Chechnya, and also organized the sending of equipment to the Chechen field commanders. By the way, back in the 1990s, Shamil Basayev and his bandits received US Army uniforms, as well as night vision binoculars and satellite phones marked “made in USA.” This property was brought to the militants of the Ichkerian army in caravans from Turkey through the south of Chechnya and Dagestan. The Global Relief Foundation also transferred money and medical equipment to the militants. Volunteers were also recruited through the website of this structure. The foundation took upon itself the processing of Russian entry documents and accommodation in the territory of Ingushetia, neighboring Chechnya. By the way, according to the foundation’s website, it spent over $1.3 million on servicing its “Caucasian” projects in 2000-2001 alone. Khattab and his American past The most famous international terrorist who operated in Chechnya in the 1990-2000s also had a dark past associated with his stay in the United States. Khattab, aka Amir ibn al-Khattab, aka Samer Saleh al-Suwailem, aka Habib Abd al-Rahman. This bandit is responsible for dozens of bloody terrorist attacks and hundreds of ruined lives of Russian military personnel, law enforcement officers and civilians. It is known that in 1987, relatives from Jordan sent him to study in New York. He was supposed to study at college, but during his stay in the United States, Khattab was infected with completely different ideas. He went to Afghanistan, where he took an active part in the fighting against Soviet troops. He fought in Jalalabad, in Kabul, and was seriously wounded. Then Khattab’s bloody trail was noticed in Nagorno-Karabakh, Iraq, and Tajikistan. The American college dropout took part in attacks on Russian border guards, including the 12th outpost of the Moscow border detachment, which killed 25 Russian servicemen. Since January 1995 - in the North Caucasus. He is a trained terrorist, proficient in mine-explosive “craft” and all types of small arms. By the way, at that time his sister lived in the United States, who, according to the commander of the United Group of Russian Forces in the North Caucasus, Colonel General Gennady Troshev, owned a weapons store. Khattab personally trained militants, created camps, and arranged for their foreign financing. In August and September 1999, he, together with Basayev, organized and led raids into Dagestan. And all this time, it was Khattab who acted as a link between the militants in Chechnya and international terrorist structures. In April 2002, he was killed, and the poison was given to him by his own assistant, who was later also killed by militants. "Crazy American" no longer kills Russian soldiers US citizen Aukai Collins also fought in Chechnya under Khattab’s leadership. As a child, he was involved in street gangs, and while serving time in San Diego, he converted to Islam. He fought in Chechnya in 1995-1996 and 1999, during one of the bandit attacks he lost his leg. It is interesting that Collins made his first trip to the North Caucasus under the guise of an employee of an American humanitarian foundation: the same “Islamic humanitarians” issued his documents in the States. The mercenary got to Chechnya through Azerbaijan along with a load of body armor and night vision devices. He was called a “crazy American”: even Chechen militants were frightened by his aggressiveness. A US citizen fought evilly and cruelly on Russian soil, personally killing Russian soldiers, which he later wrote about in the book “My Jihad,” where he described in detail many of his atrocities. Russian law enforcement agencies are seeking the extradition of this thug, but all requests remain unsuccessful. According to some reports, Collins is a full-time informant for US intelligence agencies and has collaborated with the CIA and FBI. He also wrote about this in his book, although he left reviews about his “curators” mainly in a derogatory tone. Today, the former militant lives in Baltimore with his wife and four-year-old son. He is a quiet American: he does not drink or smoke, as the Koran prescribes... Where does the “lad” get his New York sadness?..“Wild geese” is what mercenaries are called all over the world. Their “nesting sites” are areas of armed conflicts all over the planet. Recently, the representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Donetsk People's Republic, Eduard Basurin, reported that in the area of ​​the village of Volnovakha there could be up to 70 mercenaries from the American private military company Academi (previously this armed formation was called Blackwater). As is known, Volnovakha is controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. There is information from other sources that Americans are participating in the fighting on Kyiv’s side. Thus, the German political scientist Michael Lüders confirmed the information about the presence of mercenaries from the private American army Academi in the conflict area in the South-East of Ukraine, although he estimates their number to be no less than 500 “bayonets”. According to Lueders, the presence of American mercenaries in the conflict zone is “a dangerous development of the situation, which does not exclude the possibility of escalation.” Last December, Academi announced its readiness to begin training a battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces for urban battles. And regarding the participation of US mercenaries from another private military company, Greystone, in the Ukrainian conflict, even the Russian Foreign Ministry was forced to make a statement. By the way, Greystone's website states that "they can provide the best military from around the world" who can "operate anywhere." At the same time, the White House denies information about the presence of American mercenaries in Ukraine.

05.10.2004 - 09:52

Where does the guy get Caucasian sadness? Our information: UNA - UNSO (Ukrainian National Assembly - Ukrainian National Self-Defense). The militants of this extremist organization of Ukrainian radicals participated (or at least declared their participation) in almost all armed conflicts in the CIS. They fought in Transnistria, in the Georgian-Abkhaz war, in both Chechen companies, participated in the attack on Dagestan, and were in Gelayev’s detachment, defeated in the fall of 2001. in the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia. DEBUT

The Unsovites started at home, in Ukraine, as an ultra-radical wing of Ukrainian independent nationalists. In the early 90s, they were quite integrated into the public life of Ukraine, working closely with the “People's Movement”. The first steps of the organization were pogroms of Orthodox churches in Western Ukraine. Even then, the militants drew attention to themselves for the cruelty with which they beat clergy and parishioners.

The next step was actions in Crimea, where they tried to push the Crimean Tatars to “cleanse” the peninsula of Russian speakers. It was not possible to unleash hostilities, but working contacts with Tatar nationalists were established. In 95 UNSO instructors in secret military camps located in the Crimean mountains trained Tatar youth. In 1992 The Unsovites went to the warring Transnistria, hoping to turn the unrecognized republic into the main base of the UNA-UNSO. But no matter how much the staff propagandists later extolled the numerous exploits of the “self-defense fighters” on the banks of the Dniester, their real contribution was more than modest. Many did not even notice several dozen militants with chevrons decorated with the “Jerusalem cross” and a trident, against the backdrop of thousands of Cossacks and volunteers from Russia. In the same year, hot guys appeared in the Caucasus. One of the leaders of the organization, Anatoly Lupinos, a criminal who spent 25 years in camps, through his prison “sidekick” Jabu Ioseliani, the leader of the Georgian armed forces “Mkhedrioni,” organized the sending of militants for the war against Abkhazia. Moreover, Jaba took upon himself all expenses for the transfer, weapons and payment of mercenaries. A detachment "Argo" was formed from the Unsovites, headed by Valery Bobrovich - the head of the Ivano-Frankivsk UNSO, a former merchant marine sailor, written off for drunkenness and profiteering, but posing as an officer, a participant in the Vietnam War. Abkhaz sources claim that the detachment decided mainly propaganda tasks, demonstrating to the Georgian army that "abroad will help us". Nevertheless, the “Argonauts” managed to be seen participating in reprisals against civilians. Fourteen of the mercenaries received the Order of Vakhtang Gorgasal, the highest award in Georgia. As a form of gratitude, they received one of the Mkhedrioni bases in the Kakheti mountains under their jurisdiction.

UNSO IN CHECHNYA

The organization’s first contacts with Chechen rebels date back to 1993, when Lupinos handed over to Dzhokhar Dudayev instructions for organizing terrorist attacks against civilians, developed by “scientific circles close to the UNSO.” Contacts were continued when a number of UNSO leaders, led by its then leader Dmitry Korchinsky, arrived in Grozny. And although it was not possible to meet with Dudayev, meetings took place with Zelimkhan Yandarbiev and Aslan Maskhadov. With the latter, Korchinsky agreed that the UNSO would recruit air defense and air force specialists in Ukraine. Ukrainian mercenaries were supposed to receive three thousand dollars a month. To begin recruitment, the Chechens transferred foreign currency funds to the account of the Unsovo Eurasia Center, which was headed by the current leader of the organization, Andrei Shkil. But the outbreak of war mixed up the plans: the rebel aircraft were destroyed at the airfields, and there was also no need to talk about any air defense system. It is known that at the time of the storming of Grozny by the opposition on November 24, 1994. Korchinsky was there, and subsequently took part in the interrogations of Russian tank crews taken prisoner by the militants.

After the outbreak of hostilities, the Prometheus detachment was sent to Chechnya at the expense of Eurasia, the backbone of which was made up of militants trained in Kakheti. According to information from the Russian special services, the bulk of Ukrainian mercenaries in the rebellious republic were not “ideological” party extremists, but marginalized criminal elements recruited to participate in hostilities by special structures of the UNSO. But this contingent is also undergoing political training.

As a rule, the combat value of these “soldiers of fortune” left much to be desired, and Chechen employers did not stand on ceremony with them. So, during the assault on Novogroznensky by federal troops in 1996, By order of Raduev, five Ukrainian mercenaries were shot. Based on the testimony of captured militants, it was possible to recreate the picture of the death of the unlucky Landsknechts. When the federals pressed the rebels hard, the mercenaries “suddenly remembered” that their contract had expired and came to Raduev for payment. He said that we first needed to hand over the machine guns and ammunition. When the Ukrainians disarmed, he ordered his nukers to take them out.

Strictly speaking, two categories of Ukrainian “volunteers” in Chechnya can be distinguished. The first is UNSO activists, such as the Prometheus fighters; they solved mainly propaganda problems, showing “the solidarity of the Ukrainian people with the struggling Ichkeria.”

PR people

Along with direct participation in hostilities, members of the UNSO provided the Chechen rebels with powerful propaganda support. On the basis of local UNSO organizations, committees “in support of Chechnya” and information centers “Chechen Press” were created in large cities of Ukraine. Most of these structures subsequently became legal “roofs” of Chechen criminal communities.

In 1998 Dmitry Korchinsky organized the Caucasus Institute, the goal of which was declared to be “the creation of a broad anti-Russian front” in this region. There is information that Magomed Tagaev’s well-known book “Our Struggle, or the Rebel Army of Islam” was written by specialists from this “institute.” Wahhabi literature published by this organization is still supplied to the Volga regions, where a significant part of the population is Muslim, distributed among the diasporas of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and supplied to Central Asia.

The Caucasus Institute and the Eurasia Center work closely with the Caucasus Center of Movladi Udugov and the Vainakh Congress of Ruslan Akaev, which controls the activities of Chechen communities in Europe.

THEIR CONNECTIONS

To this day, UNSO wields significant weight in the Ukrainian establishment. For example, a member of the UNA was Leonid Kuchma’s adviser on social protection of military personnel, chairman of the All-Ukrainian Association “Fatherland”, Major General Vilen Martirosyan. The organization receives great support from the Ukrainian self-sacred “patriarch” Filaret, who achieved registration of the UNA-UNSO, from which it was removed for extremism. The Unsovites also had serious connections in the apparatus of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. For a long time, the human rights commission of the Verkhovna Rada was headed by the former leader of the UNA Oleg Vitovich. Unsovites are looking for contacts with extremist organizations in Russia.

The attempt to “make friends” with the RNE failed - the Barkashovites refused any “consultations” with the UNSO. But they managed to establish interaction with a certain Alexander Ivanov-Sukharevsky, a failed film director and leader of the People’s National Party (whose emblem is also the “Jerusalem” cross). According to media reports, a couple of years ago, according to the idea of ​​​​Korchinsky and Udugov, Sukharevsky was going to lead the “Russian Liberation Army” (ROA-!?) in Chechnya, which should be composed of Slavs fighting on the side of the rebels.

In addition, UNA-UNSO is trying to create its own cells in the Stavropol region, Kuban, and Rostov region. Through the underground Greek Catholic order, the UNSO interacts with the intelligence structures of the Vatican, is in contact with the leader of the Italian “Red Brigades” Pietro Danutzoo, and also (according to Korchinsky) with the Masonic lodge “P-2”. Since the mid-90s, contacts have been established with Algerian fundamentalists, the IRA, American and German neo-Nazis, and the South African Iron Guard. Interviews with the leaders of these organizations, analysis of their activities, and “exchange of experience” filled the pages of UNS newspapers and magazines. It is curious that almost simultaneously the UNSO established contacts with the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Turkish Gray Wolves.

Through the Turks, they reached out to the Afghan Mujahideen of Hekmatyar, and even suggested that they create an “International of the Offended,” which would include terrorist organizations from all over the world, but they did not meet with “understanding.” There is information that contact with the Taliban movement was once established through Udugov and Yandarbiev.

WHAT NOT TO BE TALKED ABOUT

Thus, Russian special services have information that the participation of UNSO militants in mass riots organized by the Belarusian opposition in Minsk was paid from a special fund created by Western “sponsors” to overthrow Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. But these contacts, oddly enough, are not advertised.

07/14/2003, Photo: AP, GAMMA, ITAR-TASS

Contract for terrorist attack

The practice of terrorist attacks using kamikazes was brought to Chechnya by Arab mercenaries. They are the ones behind the preparation and financing of the latest terrorist attack in Tushino. He talks about who is fighting in Chechnya and for how long and is training terrorists there. Olga Allenova .

There were three Arabs, they were lying on the frozen ground, next to the trench in which they had fought off the advancing federals for several days. There were spent cartridges, used syringes, some papers and brochures in Arabic lying everywhere. The Arabs had waxen faces, bare feet and torn trousers. All the rest of their clothes lay in a heap of rags nearby. It was in the fall of 1999 on the Tersky Ridge, which had just been recaptured by the federals.

Mercenaries,” explained the army officer assigned to accompany us. “It’s good that they died here, but would have fallen into our hands... Apparently, the Muslim god took pity on them.”

These Arabs came to the Tersky Range from the nearby Chechen village of Serzhen-Yurt, where for a long time there was the camp of the field commander Khattab, the man who opened the way to Chechnya for foreign mercenaries.

Khattab was enriched by the war

Mercenary as a phenomenon appeared on the territory of the former USSR in the early 90s, when the country was torn apart by local conflicts. Abkhazia, Transnistria, Fergana, Karabakh - wherever another interethnic war broke out, people appeared who were ready to sacrifice their lives for money. The Ukrainian organization UNA-UNSO was especially famous at that time: in 1992 it sent several detachments to protect the Ukrainians of Transnistria, in July 1993 it sent the Argo expeditionary force to Abkhazia, which fought near Sukhumi on the side of Georgia (seven “UNS members”, the Georgian government posthumously awarded the Order of Vakhtang Gorgasal); and in 1994, the UNA-UNSO Viking unit arrived in Chechnya. They were received everywhere with open arms, because they knew that the “Unsovites” were good, disciplined warriors, and it was not a pity to pay money to a good warrior. Ukrainians were used to create special units in the regular army of Ichkeria; they were used as instructors to train Chechen soldiers.

However, by that time, the “king of mercenaries”, the Jordanian Khattab, had already appeared in Chechnya, who brought with him 200 dark-skinned fighters - they became the main military force of young Ichkeria. These fighters, who went through the war in Afghanistan, were supposed to teach inexperienced Chechen soldiers all the rules of the art of war.

The peak of mercenary activity came at the beginning of the second Chechen war - Wahhabism dominated in Chechnya and the mountains of Dagestan, and a lot of money went to the Caucasus to maintain and spread it. By that time, several camps for training militants and terrorists (including suicide bombers) were already operating on the territory of the republic, the instructors of which were exclusively foreign mercenaries, mainly from Arab countries. According to operational data, these camps trained up to 40 people for suicide bombers alone. This “concern” was led directly by Khattab, who received money from international terrorist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda. It was at the instigation of Khattab that the second Chechen war was especially bloody, more intelligent and protracted. During this war, the Jordanian became a wealthy man, earning, according to operational data, about $20 million, and his assistants Abubakar and Abu al-Walid, according to various estimates, about $5-7 million.

Road to hell

People become mercenaries deliberately. Those who are not afraid of risk and, in principle, are ready to die, but for good money, go for it. This method of earning money is especially common in the Middle East: the standard of living there is low, families are large, and not everyone has the opportunity to feed their family and provide it with a decent future.

It all starts with the recruiter gathering a small group and the recruits immediately receive an agreed amount to leave money for the family. Usually it’s $1-2 thousand. “If you become a real mujahideen, you will receive

Big money, enough to last a lifetime,” the recruiter promises the recruit. Then a group of future Mujahideen are transported “to the base”, where they will be molded into militants.

In a number of countries there are clandestine centers for training mercenaries. Almost all the mercenaries who ended up in Chechnya went through such centers in Afghanistan, not counting Khattab and his closest associates - they “received their education” in the United States.

Training lasts a couple of months, and by the end of this period, inexperienced recruits turn out to be real “dogs of war.” They wield any type of weapon, can make a landmine from a used artillery shell, and read and make maps. They have skills in contact combat, sniper and mine-sabotage warfare. They know how to fight in the city and in the mountains, how to lure them into a “sack” and break up a military column, and how to survive in a winter forest.

If someone shows technical ability, the instructor takes him to a special group specializing in sabotage activities. A demolition specialist is highly valued by commanders; he is paid more, because often the earnings of the entire squad depend on his work. As a rule, explosions and attacks on columns are recorded on film so that the customer can be sure that the work is done and the money paid is not in vain.

Graduates of the sabotage camp are divided into small groups and secretly transported to the conflict zone. In the case of Chechnya, the mercenaries used the routes Turkey-Georgia-Chechnya or Azerbaijan-Dagestan-Chechnya.

Mercenaries receive weapons, uniforms and medicines on the spot. A small first aid kit must contain potent drugs: sometimes they are used to relieve the pain of a wound, and sometimes before a battle to gain courage. They are taught this wisdom back in the camp: “If you want to kill fear, give an injection.” Many people can no longer do without these injections.

In the first battle, they are still checked to see if the hand will tremble, if the person will take pity on the wounded enemy, if he will not run away from the battlefield. However, for the frightened, awkward and insecure, the first battle still becomes the last: they get lost and fall under bullets. The survivors are formed into units that are already assigned complex tasks.

After each successful operation, the squad leader receives the money and distributes it among his men, usually keeping the lion's share for himself. For example, for the destruction of a military column, a detachment receives $40 thousand: the commander takes 20 of them for himself, 10 is divided between two or three of his deputies, and the rest is given to the soldiers. An ordinary militant who participated in the defeat of the convoy receives approximately $1 thousand for his work. And the one who plants a landmine on the road receives only a hundred dollars.

Most mercenaries realize after a couple of months that they won’t see the big money promised, but they have nowhere to go: when they try to escape, they can shoot their own as a traitor, or the federals will cover them. However, many fighters in civilian life would not be able to earn even a third of the amount they receive, so the thought of returning home rarely occurs to them.

Live to Die

In the winter of 2000, a detachment of Arab mercenaries was leaving the high-mountainous Shatoi region, heading towards the Russian-Georgian border, and was ambushed by FSB special forces. After a fierce battle, the detachment was left with six seriously wounded mercenaries, of which only one, a Yemeni, reached the military base in Khankala. His name was Abdu-Salam Zurka, his spine was crushed and his foot was torn off. He almost didn’t answer questions; it was useless to beat him: the military doctor who examined the prisoner said that he had a day or two to live. Therefore, the security officers postponed the usual interrogation procedure. In order to demonstrate the Arab mercenary to journalists, he was taken out of the FSB tent on a stretcher and laid on the ground. He didn't notice anything - neither the TV cameramen running around, nor the newspaper men looking at him like a rare animal - he simply crossed his arms over his chest and looked detachedly at the sky. Looking at his face, it was difficult to understand whether he was alive or already on his way to another world.

Zurka was the commander of a detachment of 50 people and reported to Khattab. In the winter of 2000, his detachment distinguished itself in the battles for Grozny and left the city only after the field commander Basayev, who commanded the defense of the Chechen capital, decided to do so. Together with Basayev's fighters, the Arabs fell into a trap set by General Shamanov - in a minefield, Zurka lost half of his squad, and he himself was wounded.

But the Yemeni spent most of his time in Chechnya in the vicinity of Serzhen-Yurt, where Khattab’s base was located. Zurka was quite close to the Jordanian himself: he received money for the detachment directly from him.

The military learned these details from captured Arabs who did not live to reach Khankala. They also named the amount that the Yemeni earned from this war - about $500 thousand.

The official army fiercely hates mercenaries, and they understand: if they fall into the hands of soldiers, the chances of getting out alive are reduced to zero. If a Chechen was captured, relatives brought money for him, organized rallies, and sometimes organized an exchange. Nobody asked for the captured mercenaries - they were captured mainly because their comrades abandoned them wounded on the battlefield. Moreover, even after the heaviest battle, the Chechens carried away their wounded and dead. And the wounded or killed mercenaries were left to the federales. However, the mercenaries never recognized the cult of death, widespread in Chechnya, otherwise they would hardly have gone to fight in a foreign country, where people like them were not even buried - they simply dumped their bodies in a hole and covered them with earth.

Their escape routes are also cut off. If a Chechen militant can change clothes and return home, where it will not be easy to identify him, then a mercenary who decides to relax for a couple of days in a village will probably fall into the hands of the special services: after all, it is difficult to explain what a foreigner is doing in a conflict zone.

Chinese chefs

In fact, it is virtually impossible to prove that a detained foreigner (if he is captured without weapons) is a mercenary. Not a single one of the detainees, even under torture, admits that they shot at representatives of the official authorities. Moreover, according to Russian laws, a foreigner detained in a combat zone must be released if guilt is not proven. But this irritated the military in Chechnya very much. “We know that this nit shot at our boys, and so that we let him go?!” - both soldiers and officers reasoned approximately this way. Therefore, few foreigners returned to their homeland: the lucky ones were those about whom the media managed to tell and in whom their embassies became interested. Although for some, returning to their homeland promises even more trouble.

In March 2000, after fierce fighting in the Chechen village of Komsomolskoye, FSB officers detained 11 militants from Ruslan Gelayev’s detachment, among whom were two Chinese citizens, ethnic Uyghurs. Saidi Aishan and Aymayerdzyan Amuti tried to get out of the encirclement under the guise of refugees. During interrogations, they said that they worked as cooks in Grozny: Saidi Aishan explained that he was the owner of a cafe, and the second Uighur helped him. When the bombing of Grozny began, they, together with the Chechens, went to the mountains and ended up in the Komsomolskoye area. When asked what the Uyghurs did in the militant group, the detainees replied: “We cooked food, we can’t do anything else.” They told journalists the same thing, and the story about the restaurant business in Grozny looked very plausible.

The feds were never able to prove their guilt, despite the fact that after a week of interrogation the Uighurs were barely moving. True, they were nevertheless charged with illegally crossing the state border. It turned out that before Chechnya, Aishan and Amuti lived in Alma-Ata, where a large Uighur diaspora settled - their compatriots recognized them. Here they were engaged in racketeering of Chinese shuttle traders trading in markets in Kazakhstan. Here they ended up in the underground terrorist organization “Liberation of East Turkestan”. After six months of consultations with the Chinese side, the FSB decided to transfer the Uighurs to the Chinese Embassy. For Aishan and Amuti, staying in Russia would be a blessing, because in their homeland they faced the death penalty for participating in gangs.

Court in uniform

But many of those with whom the Uyghurs shared bread in the Chechen mountains were not even dealt with. At the height of hostilities, these could easily be attributed to combat losses. During the battles for Komsomolskoye, either special forces, or the GRU, or the FSB brought three bloodied Arabs to Khankala: they were unloaded from a helicopter and taken to a special tent that served as a pre-trial detention center. In the evening, the guys from the special forces came to the journalists to call home on a satellite phone. We started asking them about the detainees.

We were working with a house that was on the edge; it was too early to go deeper,” the guys readily said. “The house was blown up, six people were taken, but we don’t know how many of them were there in total.”

But they only brought three,” we were surprised. “Where are the other three?”

Yes, they accidentally fell out of the helicopter,” the guys laughed.

And then I got into a conversation with one of these special forces.

“In my memory, there are at least four foreigners with whom we worked directly,” he said. “I can’t talk about the whole of Chechnya, because we worked point-by-point: we gave a tip that strangers had appeared in such and such a village, and we Let's move there. In one of these raids they took a gang of seven people - they came to the village to rest and pick up supplies that had already been prepared for them. Among them were two Arabs and one Jordanian. We held them for almost two months, but didn’t get anything out of them. They have a story they know by heart: “We came to help our brothers in faith, because we thought that the Russians were oppressing Islam, but then we realized that we were mistaken, and it was too late to leave, they were bombing all around.” We cross-examined them, and made threats, and made all sorts of promises, but they understand perfectly well: once you confess to being a mercenary, that’s it, you can’t get out. In short, two were sent to their homeland, where their relatives came to the rescue, and the third died, something happened to his heart. But the most interesting incident happened later, near Urus-Martan they captured three more - two Chechens and a Turk. The Turk claimed that he came to Chechnya to teach Islam in schools. We collected information, it turned out that he doesn’t even know Arabic, how did he read the Koran? Locals, however, confirmed that he actually taught before the war, but not in a regular school, but in a Wahhabi school, there was such a school in Urus-Martan. And when the war began, he went with the militants to the mountains. It is clear that he did not read books in the detachment. But it is impossible to prove this. He also stayed with us for several months, groveling, ready to crawl on his knees, but he never confessed. When asked if he had picked up a weapon, he swore that he had not. “I’m a scientist,” he said. We let him go. Yes, that’s how they released me, to Urus-Martan. Where should I put it? We can’t pay for his way home, but what should we do with him? He was in Urus-Martan for several days and then disappeared. Where? Don't know. I know that people from Gelayev came to the city and tried to take him to Georgia. Apparently he was a big man after all. But they didn’t find it. Someone must have swatted the poor guy.

Maybe he really didn’t fight? - I asked.

That's what they all say. Whoever you detain, he will either pretend to be a builder or a cook. Or even a hostage. Only we have radio interception data, we hear Arabic speech, we hear them discussing the operations they carried out. And they don’t hide about the money: for a small terrorist attack it’s 100 bucks, for a medium one - 500-1000, and a large one like blowing up an entire column will cost 15 “pieces”.

The end is just the beginning

With the death of the "black god of war" Khattab, the mercenary movement was decapitated. The Jordanian’s assistants tried to take the profitable business into their own hands, but their customers had less confidence in them, and many commanders who had their own ideas for vacant positions refused to obey them. In addition, the aggravated situation in Palestine and the war in Afghanistan and Iraq forced Arab “financiers” to switch to other territories. The Chechen resistance began to fade away. Today in the mountains of Chechnya there are no more than a dozen mercenaries who simply do not know how to get out of Chechnya, which is actually blocked by the federals. They are not included in the amnesty announced to members of gangs.

Mercenaries died, but not the war waged by mercenaries. The ranks of the resistance have been replenished with “ideological” fighters “for the freedom of Ichkeria,” and these fighters will not be stopped by hunger, cold, or empty pockets. This was confirmed by the latest terrorist attack at the festival in Tushino, where two Chechen women, who, according to operational data, had undergone combat and ideological training from Arab instructors, exploded in the crowd.

Achievement list. The most famous mercenary of Chechnya

Information about the life of Habib Abd-el-Rahman Khattab is very contradictory. Born in 1963 (according to other sources, in 1965, 1966, 1970) in Jordan or Saudi Arabia into a wealthy Chechen family.

In 1987, he graduated from high school and went to college in the United States (a number of media reported that Khattab “took part in hostilities in Afghanistan” and “served in the Circassian guard of King Hussein” since 1982). In the 90s, according to the media, he fought in Afghanistan (in mujahideen detachments), Tajikistan (on the side of the Islamic opposition), Iraq (with whom the war was fought is unknown). He was wounded several times and lost two fingers.

At the same time, he met bin Laden and the leading theoretician of Islamic extremism, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, Seyid Qutb. Allegedly graduated from the military academy in Amman. He became an expert in explosives and all types of light weapons, as well as sabotage operations. In 1994 or 1995 he arrived in Chechnya, where he became one of the field commanders. He became widely known in April 1996 after organizing an ambush on a convoy of the 245th motorized rifle regiment near the village of Yarysh-Mardy in the Argun Gorge. Then 53 soldiers were killed and 52 were wounded.

In the summer of 1998, he became close to Shamil Basayev on the basis of organizing the Islamic Imamate in the North Caucasus. He created a number of sabotage schools, in which women also studied, who later became martyrs. Together with Basayev, he led the invasion of Dagestan in August 1999. In September 1999, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, he organized explosions in Buinaksk, Volgodonsk and Moscow, earning about $700 thousand from this. And in March 2001 - terrorist attacks in Mineralnye Vody, Essentuki and Karachay-Cherkessia. Khattab's largest operation was the breakthrough of one and a half thousand Mujahideen from the Vedeno Gorge in February-March 2000.

Personnel. How many mercenaries are there in Chechnya?

According to the operational directorate of the North Caucasus Military District, during the first war (1994-1996), one large unit of up to 200 people from Khattab’s Arab mercenaries operated on the territory of Chechnya. In addition to this detachment, volunteers (mainly from Ukraine and the Baltic states) also fought in the rank and file of the armed forces of Ichkeria. Moreover, Khattab’s detachment, nicknamed “Indians” by the federal forces, continued sabotage activities even after the signing of the Khasavyurt agreement, not limiting itself to the borders of Chechnya. In 1997, he blew up and fired at a convoy in North Ossetia.

The most intense influx of mercenaries into Chechnya was observed in 1998-1999 before and during the militant invasion of Dagestan. Military analysts associate the increased interest of foreign mercenaries in the republic with the growing role of Wahhabi ideology in Chechnya. By that time, several training camps were already operating in the republic, the instructors of which were exclusively foreigners. The general management of the volunteers was carried out by the same Khattab.

From 1999 to 2000, the number of mercenaries in the republic remained unchanged - within 600-700 people. In 2000, a strong outflow of volunteers from Chechnya began due to the successful actions of federal troops and the strained relations between Khattab and Maskhadov. In addition, the aggravation of the situation in Palestine played a role - the main financial flows to fuel terrorism were redirected there.

By 2001, the number of mercenaries remaining in Chechnya had been reduced to 200-250 people. The intensification of the Afghan Taliban, which caused an even greater outflow of volunteers from Chechnya, and the intensified work of the special services after September 11 affected both the financing of mercenaries and their freedom of movement. Since 2000, the Pankisi Gorge has become the main base for volunteers, and clashes involving Arabs occurred mainly in the border regions of Chechnya.

Today, the total number of mercenaries operating on the territory of the Chechen Republic is negligible. After the liquidation of Khattab, the command of the units subordinate to him passed to his closest associate Abu al-Walid, and the flow of money to support volunteers in Chechnya practically ceased. In addition, some of the mercenaries who fought in Chechnya left Russia during the aggravation of the situation around Iraq.

A murderous chronicle. Suicide bombers and suicide bombers

Terrorist attacks using kamikazes were the hallmark of Arab extremists. In Russia, they began to take place after Arab instructors and preachers of Wahhabism appeared here.

June 6, 2000 In Chechnya, they carried out a suicide bombing attack for the first time. It was performed by Arbi Barayeva's niece Khava. She broke through to the commandant's office building in Alkhan-Yurt in a truck with TNT. Security shot up the truck. As a result of the explosion, two riot policemen and Barayev were killed.

June 11, 2000 At a checkpoint in Grozny, a suicide bomber blew up a car. Two servicemen were killed and one was wounded.

July 2, 2000 In Chechnya, suicide bombers carried out five terrorist attacks. Two explosions occurred in Gudermes, one each in Novogroznensky, Urus-Martan and Argun. 33 police officers were killed and 84 were injured.

December 19, 2000 Mareta Dudueva tried to break through with explosives to the building of the Leninsky regional police department in Grozny, but was wounded and did not carry out the explosion.

April 9, 2001 In the toilet of the Government House building in Grozny, an explosion killed a cleaner and injured two women. The deceased was a suicide bomber.

November 29, 2001 The suicide bomber blew herself up together with the commandant of Urus-Martan, Heydar Gadzhiev.

February 5, 2002 16-year-old Zarema Inarkaeva carried explosives into the building of the Zavodsky District Department of Internal Affairs in Grozny, but only she herself suffered from the explosion.

October 23, 2002 in Moscow, Movsar Barayev’s group, which included female suicide bombers, captured about 900 people in the theater center on Dubrovka. During the operation of the special services, all terrorists were destroyed. 129 hostages died.

December 27, 2002 A 15-year-old girl and two men blew up two cars near the Government House in Grozny. 72 people were killed, 210 were injured.

May 12, 2003 In the village of Znamenskoye, Nadterechny district of Chechnya, two women and a man blew up a KamAZ truck near the district administration building. 60 people were killed and more than 250 were injured.

May 14, 2003 near the village of Iliskhan-Yurt, Gudermes region of Chechnya, a terrorist blew herself up in a crowd of people at a religious holiday. 16 people were killed and more than 140 were injured.

June 5, 2003 In Mozdok, a woman blew herself up near a bus carrying personnel from a military airfield. 20 people were killed, 14 were injured.

June 20, 2003 In Grozny, a woman and a man blew up a KamAZ truck with explosives near the building of the operational search bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 36 people were injured. Only terrorists died.

July 5, 2003 In Moscow, two female suicide bombers blew themselves up at the rock festival in Tushino. 13 people were killed and 50 were injured.

On Tuesday, a regular meeting of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Chechnya in the case of citizens of Ukraine was held in Grozny Nikolai Karpyuk And Stanislav Klykh. They are accused of killing two or more people during hostilities in Chechnya. The persons killed by these citizens of the neighboring state were servicemen of the Russian army. Citizens of Ukraine participated in hostilities as part of UNA-UNSO units and were subordinate to Aslana Maskhadova And Shamilya Basayeva.

Yatsenyuk in a tank

The defendants are not the only citizens of Ukraine accused on Russian territory of participating in Chechen gangs. Not long ago, the long list of those accused of military actions against federal forces in Chechnya was supplemented by Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

It was first announced in the 1990s Head of the Russian Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin in September this year. Thus, according to his data, Yatsenyuk was directly involved in the events of December 1993 - February 1994 in Grozny. He is also suspected of torture and execution of Russian military personnel. “According to our information, Yatsenyuk, among other active participants in the UNA-UNSO, was awarded the highest award in December 1995 Dzhokhara Dudayeva“The honor of the nation” for the destruction of Russian military personnel,” said the head of the Investigative Committee.

The main evidence against the Ukrainian prime minister was the testimony of the now deceased radical nationalist at the disposal of the Investigative Committee. Alexandra Muzychko(better known as Sashko Bily), under whose command Yatsenyuk allegedly fought in Chechnya. Naturally, the politician’s press service immediately rejected all accusations, and a wave of jokes and demotivators appeared on the Internet depicting Yatsenyuk on a tank or with a beard typical of Islamists. No other evidence, as well as evidence of Yatsenyuk’s non-involvement in the events described, has yet appeared. According to the official biography of the politician, during the war in Chechnya he lived in Chernivtsi, where he organized a certain company that dealt with “privatization issues.” Yatsenyuk has the military rank of reserve captain with the specialty of artillery reconnaissance officer.

We will leave the details of the Ukrainian prime minister’s involvement in the fighting in Chechnya to the investigation.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Photo: Reuters

Strong Chechen-Ukrainian friendship

Today there is a lot of evidence that Ukrainian nationalists actually fought in Chechnya on the side of Dudayev’s militants against Russian government troops. The times were troubled, many people wanted to make money, and the neo-Banderaites did not miss the opportunity to shoot at the “Muscovites.” It is known for certain that the organization UNA-UNSO (Ukrainian National Assembly - Ukrainian People's Self-Defense) was recruiting Ukrainian fighters for the war in the Caucasus Mountains. This group is recognized as extremist, and its activities are prohibited in Russia.

According to some reports, the fighters were entitled to a monetary reward of $2-3 thousand per month. They were brought to Chechnya through Georgia. There is evidence that during the Chechen campaign, militants underwent treatment and rehabilitation on the territory of Ukraine. Here they worked closely with UNA-UNSO, created their own cells and negotiated the supply of weapons. So close friendly ties between Chechen terrorists and Ukrainian nationalists developed a long time ago. This is precisely what can explain the fact that in the war in Donbass, immigrants from Chechnya found themselves in the ranks of the punitive battalions of neo-Banderaites.

Initially led the militants General in exile Isa Munayev, who received political asylum in Denmark after the end of the Chechen campaign. And now, years later, the hour of retribution has come for him. In 2014, he already calmly held press conferences for the Ukrainian media, during which he praised the soldiers of the Ukrainian battalions fighting against the Donbass militias. In February 2015, General Munaev was killed during the battles for Debaltsevo.

Combat experience

In fact, it was not only the leaders of the Chechen gangs of the 90s who brought the experience of the Chechen war to the conflict in Donbass. There are also Ukrainians who, having gained experience in the Caucasus Mountains, took up arms again in 2014, but this time on the territory of their country. Some even went into big politics.

We are talking about such well-known members of UNA-UNSO as Dmitry Korchinsky(journalist and public figure, ex-candidate for president of Ukraine), Andrey And Oleg Tyagnibok(deputies of the Verkhovna Rada), Dmitry Yarosh(member of the Verkhovna Rada, adviser to the head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, leader of the “Right Sector” and the right-wing radical nationalist organization “Trizub”), etc. All of the listed citizens of Ukraine in 1994-1995 took part in hostilities in Chechnya under the command of the aforementioned Alexander Muzychko.

UNA-UNSO march in Kyiv. Photo: www.russianlook.com

“During the investigation of the criminal case about the clash between illegal armed groups led by Shamil Basaev and Khattab with military personnel of the 76th Pskov Airborne Division on the territory of the Chechen Republic, information was received about the organization of a gang of members of the UNA-UNSO and their participation in military operations against federal forces in side of the Chechen separatists in the period 1994-1995,” said the official statement of the TFR.

Maybe they were slandered? Let's get a look. Korchinsky is actually the founder of UNA-UNSO. In the 1990s, he personally negotiated cooperation with Maskhadov. During the conflict in Donbass, he publicly called for the creation of filtration camps for Russian-speaking residents of Lugansk and Donetsk.

Oleg Tyagnibok is a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of several convocations, a candidate for the presidency of Ukraine, known for his loud Russophobic and anti-Semitic statements.

Everyone is already quite aware of the late Sashko Bily (who, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, shot himself during a special operation; he managed to “distinguish himself” in the war in Donbass. We can only mention that he also managed to show himself in Chechnya. Possessing a Slavic appearance, he carried out subversive work among Russian military personnel, led them into Chechen ambushes and generally proved himself to be a true follower Stepan Bandera. According to some reports, Muzychko was directly involved in organizing the hostage-taking in Budennovsk, conducting reconnaissance on the ground and helping the terrorists draw up an action plan.

But let's return to our premieres. Until relatively recently, politician Yatsenyuk spoke out categorically against his involvement with Ukrainian neo-fascists, although he had attended their events for a long time, as evidenced by eyewitnesses. But already in 2015, it was he who became the author of the bill “On the legal status and memory of participants in the struggle for the independence of Ukraine in the twentieth century,” according to which OUN members and UPA soldiers are given the status of “fighters for the independence of Ukraine.”

It is so customary that the degree of “heroism” of Ukrainian nationalists is usually assessed by the number of Russians killed - during the Second World War, in Chechnya, and now in the Donbass. So it is not at all surprising that today the younger generation of Ukrainian nationalists takes the side of IS militants in the Syrian conflict, diligently exposing Russian pilots and applauding the victories of terrorists, and in Lviv there is still a street named after Dzhokhar Dudayev.

* Organizations recognized as extremist and banned in Russia.

A blue-eyed bearded guy in a camouflage jacket gives an interview. The image is blurry, the recording is rare, it is 20 years old. But on his hat you can see a green bandage with the inscription “Ukraine”. His brothers in arms wear the same ones. But their armbands say “Allahu Akbar.”

- What are you doing here? - the journalist asks him.

“We are stealing the freedom of the Chechen-Ukrainian people against Moscow aggression,” the guy answers confidently.

-Are there many of your people here?

“200 guys,” the fighter switches to Russian.

- How do they fight?

- As the others. Like the Chechens, so are the Ukrainians. They fight well. And when we attack Moscow, we will fight even better,” it’s not easy for him to speak perfect Russian. It is obvious that his native language is Ukrainian.

This person is Alexander Muzychko, aka Sashko Bily, a Rivne activist of the right-wing radical organization UNA-UNSO, who was killed by Kyiv special forces in March 2014 during his arrest. In the video, he is a little over 30, he is the commander of the Viking detachment, which fights against the Russian army during the first Chechen war.

If he had remained alive, he would probably have become one of the main defendants in the “large-scale criminal case about Ukrainian militants,” which began to be considered in the Grozny court this week.

According to Russian human rights activists, it was discovered back in 2001, but the investigation was not very active. Events on the Maidan, the situation in Crimea and the war in Donbass contributed to the fact that Russian investigators have shaken off the dust from the yellowed pages.

In the dock were the famous Unsovite, ally of Dmitry Yarosh Nikolai Karpyuk and journalist Stanislav Klykh. Karpyuk is accused of creating a gang of mercenaries to travel to Chechnya and killing Russian soldiers during the 1994-1995 war. Klykh is charged with participation in a gang and torture (Article 209 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - leadership and participation in a gang and Article 102 - murder of two or more military personnel).

For more than a year, neither lawyers nor human rights activists could approach both prisoners. Klykh has already stated that he gave all his confessions under torture.

Companions of those arrested unanimously assure that neither Karpyuk nor Klykh were in Chechnya during the war. But recently, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Tyagnibok brothers and Dmitry Yarosh, who, according to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, also fought on the side of the Chechen militants, joined them in the same row. Their names gave the case of the “Caucasian captives” a political overtone.

In any case, Sashko Bily is far from the only Ukrainian who has made his mark in Chechnya. What were the Ukrainians looking for in that war? What do you remember about your comrades and enemies? Many participants in those events hid the details of their stay in Chechnya for a long time. While in Grozny, the Ukrainians tried not to be included in photographs and videos.

And amateur photographs were carefully stored in their photo archives. Excessive attention could cost them their freedom in Ukraine, where Article 447 “Mercenarism” appeared in the Criminal Code. In connection with the criminal case in Russia, some of them, without denying the “Chechen stage” in their lives, refuse to share their memories for fear of persecution. Those who agreed often avoid tough questions. But still, they shared their memories with journalists from the Reporter publication.

Road

Evgeny Diky, then a journalist and head of the humanitarian mission of the Ukrainian human rights committee “Helsinki-90,” recalls. He arrived in Grozny at the beginning of 1995. He accompanied a cargo of medicines, collected information as a journalist and human rights activist at the front and in the rear. He left Chechnya in April 1996, when the active phase of the war ended.

— The desire to go to Chechnya was spontaneous. When Ukraine learned that Russia did not recognize the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and was going to suppress the rebellion, those who wanted to go had only one question: who would be better at negotiating the transfer? The core of the “Ukrainian corps” is several dozen people with combat experience in Afghanistan, Transnistria, and Abkhazia. Ours reached the border of Dagestan with Chechnya. Transfer is a big word. In fact, they could drive through a mountain river at night on a tractor. This was done brazenly - there was a bridge a kilometer away that was controlled by the Russians.

Among the Ukrainians there were those who made themselves newspaper employee IDs, which were a good screen. They really made good reports without letting go of the machine gun.

“The day before New Year’s 1995, we arrived in Baku and met with Chechen friends there,” recalls Igor Mazur (call sign Topol), head of the Kyiv branch of UNA-UNSO, one of the defendants in the Russian criminal case. — At that time, tank columns were already heading towards Grozny, and it was possible to get to Chechnya through Dagestan. We drove through normally, but several of our guys were taken from Grozny by their parents. When they found out where their sons were going, they came to the leadership of UNA-UNSO and demanded that the children be returned back.

During the war, the Chechens found themselves under an information blockade. Ukrainian journalists tried to break through it

Motive

The main motive for the Ukrainians’ trip to Chechnya was cited by the Russian media as money, which the government of Dzhokhar Dudayev allegedly generously gifted to foreign specialists. But not everything is so simple. Some Ukrainians already had military experience, first gained in Afghanistan. UNSO activists, in turn, polished it in Transnistria and Abkhazia.

“Only a small part of the people who passed through Chechnya fall under the definition of “mercenaries,” says Evgeniy Dikiy. “They received a handsome reward.” But the overwhelming majority were ordinary volunteers who fought for free. They received clothing and food allowances, like other soldiers. The Chechens did not throw money away. What's the point of paying for something that a local will do for free? And to get money, you had to have unique skills. For example, to be a sapper or a MANPADS operator.

There were certainly such people among Ukrainians. We are talking about military personnel who went through Afghanistan. Obviously, it was not only money or an idea that forced them to change one war to another. But rather a post-war syndrome.

Azerbaijani photographer Tagi Jafarov, who worked in Grozny during the first Chechen war, wrote about one of these Ukrainians in his memoirs:

“Victor, on the contrary, is silent. He is originally from Kharkov. Victor does not make noise, does not share his emotional impressions of the battle. He speaks quietly, taking his time. He is a professional man, Afghanistan has passed. There is a wife and children at home... And not a crest, a Russian.

- Vit, how did you get here? Also for money?

“No, money has nothing to do with it,” pause. I'm waiting for him to speak. - You see, we put so many of them in Afghanistan. Villages were swept to the ground and burned. For what? In the name of what? There are many of them on my conscience. This is where I atone for Afghan sins. Maybe I’ll get credit for it.”

UNSO activists never denied that they went to Chechnya because of ideological anti-imperial views. They saw that war through the prism of Ukrainian independence, obtained bloodlessly. For the same reason, the passionate Balts ended up in Chechnya.

“Then it seemed to us like this: in order not to have a front in Crimea, we need to keep it in the Caucasus,” recalls former head of UNA-UNSO Dmitry Korchinsky.

“It may be difficult to understand now, but many were emotionally inclined to say: “You can’t crush people with tanks because they wanted independence!” - says Wild. — Ukraine and the Baltic countries also chose independence. So now they will be pressured like this too? That’s why they went to help, fearing the return of the empire.

“Hundreds of our wounded soldiers received treatment in Ukraine,” recalls Musa Taipov, a member of the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. — They brought us humanitarian aid. And Ukrainian journalists broke through the information blockade, telling the world about the true events in the Russian-Chechen war. It was extremely difficult to get to us and then take out the footage.

300 Ukrainians

Data on how many Ukrainians went to Chechnya as fighters varies.

The representative of the ChRI government, Musa Taipov, speaks of two dozen people, four of whom died. One was captured.

According to Evgeniy Diky’s calculations, about 300 Ukrainians visited Chechnya during the war, 70 of whom passed through the Unsov detachment. One of the UNSO commanders Valery Bobrovich, who fought
in Abkhazia (he led the Argo detachment), gives a figure of 100 people.

“They treated the wounded, provided security, sent out humanitarian aid,” Dmytro Yarosh, whose patriotic organization “Trizub” collaborated with Dzhokhar Dudayev, recalled in an interview with Hromadsky. “I turned to Dudayev with a request to form a Ukrainian unit. But I received the answer: “Thank you, but we have fewer weapons than people willing.” That's why we didn't go.

Igor Mazur assures that he, like other Ukrainians, accompanied foreign journalists more than he fought.

“The journalists still trusted us, the Slavs, more than the Caucasians,” recalls Mazur.

“The wounded were transported through Georgia,” he says. — In Ukraine, besides ours, Chechens were also treated. Mostly they received assistance in Western Ukraine. This was done seemingly secretly, but it only seemed so. Everyone knew. The official position of Ukraine was as follows: we categorically deny Ichkeria, have no contacts with them, condemn the participation of Ukrainians, and can give an article to mercenaries. In practice, there were no trials; no one was extradited to Russia.

Meeting

Evgeniy Dikiy recalls that in Chechnya any person of Slavic appearance raised a lot of questions. But as soon as they said that he was Ukrainian, he immediately became a dear guest.

“The Ukrainian passport was a universal pass,” says Diky. — The Chechens really appreciated the fact that Ukrainians were practically the only volunteers from non-Muslim countries who came to fight on their side. They understood that no one owed them anything, that coming here was the highest manifestation of friendship.

This same factor became the reason for hatred on the part of Russians.

“They could not understand why the Slavs turned against them, why they became traitors,” continues Evgeniy. “In order not to be captured by them, ours always had the last grenade with them.” They understood: if they were taken prisoner, there would be no trial.

And in order not to stand out among the Caucasians, Ukrainians grew beards. Following the example of the Chechens, green ribbons were tied to machine guns and uniforms.

Kharkov resident Oleg Chelnov (call sign Berkut) stood out more than others among the Ukrainians.
Among nationalists and participants in those events, he is considered an even more iconic figure than Sashko Bily. Both were awarded the highest award by Dzhokhar Dudayev - the Order of Honor of the Nation.

“He was not a member of the UNSO when he arrived in Chechnya,” recalls Igor Mazur. - But before this war, I went through hot spots, was a liquidator at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. I could never sit in one place: I wanted to figure out where the truth was and where the lies were.

There were legends about his dashing character in Chechnya.

When there were street battles and the Chechens and Russians were in the neighboring front doors, in this chaos and confusion Chelnov could fly up to the Russian paratroopers and shout: “Why are you still here? Behind me!"

“He was fair-haired, blue-eyed, dressed in a trophy uniform,” recalls Dikiy. - They believed him. And he brought these Russians to the Chechens, who then “packed” them. Chelnov also found out that many of the Russian military’s call signs have not changed since Afghanistan. He took advantage of it. He went on the air under the call sign of the commander and caused crossfire so that one battery “kneaded” the other.

Chelnov died in Grozny in 1996. Sashko Bily said in one of his interviews that
the government of Ichkeria named a street in honor of Oleg, and his daughter was given a lifelong allowance. Naturally, after the second Chechen war, these privileges for the Ukrainian family were eliminated. The street named after him, like the street named after Muzychko, no longer exists in Grozny.

A detachment of Unsovites arrived in Grozny in the winter of 1995. According to unofficial data, about 300 Ukrainians passed through Chechnya

Torture

In the Russian media, Sashko Bily appeared as the personal security guard of Dzhokhar Dudayev. He was portrayed as an extremely cruel person who practiced sophisticated torture on prisoners.

“You can’t call him an easy person,” Dikiy recalls. - Heavy character. A commander who does not spare himself, first of all, and then his soldiers. He didn’t give a damn about laws, but he didn’t give a damn about concepts. He did not torture prisoners. Moreover, it was an invaluable exchange fund. I can be a living witness to those events, I communicated with prisoners, including those who were with Bily.

“Bily was among the three dozen fighters who guarded the building of the Republican Committee,” says Dikiy. - But this is not Dudayev’s personal security. Moreover, Bily did not command her.

Ukrainian journalist Viktor Minyailo, who visited Chechnya twice during the 1994-1996 war, recalls how one of Chechnya’s military leaders, Aslan Maskhadov, wrote a note in which he addressed all his subordinates with the order to release any Ukrainian from captivity, no matter who he was.

“This concerned the Ukrainians fighting on the side of the federals,” says Minyailo. — Those who were born in Ukraine. They were indeed released unconditionally.

“The torture took place during the second Chechen war,” assures Musa Taipov. “But it was a different war - fierce and outside the rules. As for the first war, Ukrainian volunteers did not torture Russian soldiers.

“The brutality occurred as peaceful villages were bombed,” Dikiy recalls. “The secular Chechens, most of whom died in the first Chechen war, were replaced by “wolf cubs” - teenagers who grew up under bombs and listened to preachers instead of lessons. Their teenage cruelty
and low cultural level ultimately formed the image of a “Chechen bandit.”

Return

According to the recollections of the fighters, the UNSO detachment returned home in the spring of 1995, when the war turned from open to partisan.

Musa Taipov says that this was the desire of the Chechen military command.

“In the second Chechen war there were fewer Ukrainians—two to three dozen,” says Yevgeny Dikiy. “These are those who could not stand it and returned to the field commanders, under whose leadership they fought in the first Chechen war. Some of them already lived in Chechnya, having converted to Islam.

Members of the UNSO, recalling those days, say that their participation in the Chechen war, as well as their attitude
to them in Ukraine, was under the close attention of the SBU, which has not lost close ties with its Russian colleagues.

“Those who returned from Chechnya tried not to advertise their exploits,” recalls journalist Viktor Minyailo. — They were afraid of criminal liability.

And there really were no high-profile trials on this matter. Although the Ukrainians who participated in the Georgian-Abkhaz war served four months behind bars on suspicion of mercenarism.

“We were released at the request of Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze,” recalls the head of the Ukrainian Argo detachment, Valery Bobrovich. “He said that keeping us, the heroes of Georgia, awarded with state awards, in custody is disrespectful on the part of Ukraine.

The past is with us again

The participation of Ukrainians in wars in the post-Soviet space after Afghanistan has long been an irrelevant topic in most Ukrainian media. There was no widespread support or condemnation on television.

“This was interesting only to those who were aware of the events,” says political scientist Mikhail Pogrebinsky. “The special services didn’t pay much attention to this either.

“Ukraine was a “sleeping” country then,” adds political scientist Vadim Karasev. — We were more concerned then about the issue of Crimea, “bagism” — Yuri Meshkov at that time was a representative of the pro-Russian bloc “Russia”, served as president of the Republic of Crimea in 1994-1995. And for us, the situation then unfolded according to the separatist scenario.

History develops in a spiral. The ideas of the UNSO radicals about the coming war, which were laughed at in Ukraine 20 years ago, have become a reality. Ukraine and Russia are not officially at war, but battles are taking place on all fronts - informational, economic, for territories and for the souls of those who live on them.

The paradox is that at that time passionate Ukrainians supported the Chechens’ right to self-determination, although for the majority of the population television painted a different picture. Today Russia, in justifying Crimea and Donbass, talks about the people’s right to self-determination. Historical parallels suggest themselves. The counterattack of Chechen militants on Grozny during Operation Jihad ended with the retreat of Russian troops and huge losses (about 2 thousand people). This defeat can be compared with the Ilovaisk tragedy. In 1996, Russia was forced to sign the Khasavyurt agreements, which actually opened the way to the independence of Ichkeria. After Ilovaisk, a battle that changed the course of the military campaign, Ukraine signed the Minsk agreements, which are comparable in meaning to the agreements in Khasavyurt.

Russia returned to Chechnya a few years later, starting the flywheel of a bloody and destructive war. When exiting the Ukrainian crisis, we must not repeat the mistakes of the past.