INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Islam is not just another soldier."If the Russians take me, I won't be exchanged", said the Chechen fighting with the Ukrainian army near
the front line."They'll torture me then show me on television."The 33-year-old dissident, a refugee who has been in Poland for nearly two
decades, joined the Sheikh Mansur battalion in April
independence is not new."Several hundred" men with shaven heads and long beards like Islam have volunteered to help Ukraine fend off
Russia's invasion.Islam did not reveal exactly how many troops there are in the battalion, or where they are stationed.He wants to keep
their identities secret for fear of reprisals against relatives in Chechnya.Because just across the front line, there are Chechens loyal to
past, a continuation of what started in the Caucasus," he said calmly, getting out of a van with a broken windscreen and a hurried spray
paint job.Echoes of warChechnya's capital, Grozny, destroyed by Russian bombs more than two decades ago, suffered a fate similar to that of
Mariupol.The small Muslim-majority republic was ravaged by two brutal wars
The last, begun by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 1999, led to the installation of Chechnya's strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who has been
accused of ruthlessly suppressing opposition.As a result, a Chechen diaspora of an estimated 250,000 people has formed in Europe, Turkey,
and the UAE."I decided to join the battalion (for) the honor of the Chechens Moscow is trying to pass off as terrorists," said Islam, who
40-year-old soldier."Two of us have been killed and others injured
But it's important we're here," Mansur said
"We have things to teach the local soldiers about war."The Chechen fighters are not officially part of the Ukrainian army
The equipment they use has been recovered from the Russians, and they are fed by locals, mostly Orthodox Christians, who seem to have taken
