[VOA News] Pro-Russian separatists battling Ukrainian forces in eastern regions say they're facing a shortage of fighters, but they seem to have found a source hundreds of miles to the east, in Russia's conflict-torn North Caucasus.
Chechens, renowned for bloody tenacity and fearlessness during two wars in the southern Russian region over the past two decades, have joined in the battle against Ukrainian armed forces around the Donetsk region.
While the presence of battle-hardened Chechens may bolster the fight on the battlefield, it's an open question whether they will actually help or hinder the separatist cause.
"It kind of undermines the whole theme that this is a local battle," said Michael Bohm, a Moscow-based journalist and an author of a book on Russian psychology. "For the average grandmother, grandfather, for the average person, who is not particularly in favor of Kyiv but doesn't want to join Russia, they are not going to look very favorably upon this." |