RICHARD SPENCER | DISPATCH
Chechens avenge family lost in wars against Moscow
Dobre (face obscured as his mother is still in Russia), Issa “Vedeno” and Sabah are among the Chechens fighting in Bakhmut
The cities of Bakhmut and Grozny were in the same country not so long ago, a 600-mile road journey apart.
The route that the men in front of me have taken from Chechnya to Ukraine since the fall of the Soviet Union has been longer, taken in half of Europe, and several decades.
Hundreds of Chechens who fled the violent rule of Ramzan Kadyrov, their Kremlin-backed leader, are now fighting with the Ukrainian army, taking the chance to avenge family and friends lost in wars against Moscow in their youth.
They are at the front of the battle for Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s east, where younger, inexperienced Ukrainian volunteers rely on their fighting record and knowledge of the enemy.
Issa “Vedeno” took up arms against
