Meet the Chechen battalion joining Ukraine to fight Russia — and fellow Chechens
While many Chechen fighters have deployed in Ukraine for Russia, this group is there to defend the country from the Russians.
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — Mansur was 13 when Russian soldiers destroyed his village of Samashki during Chechnya's first war for independence against Russia.
Wielding flamethrowers, the Russians burned Mansur's neighbors alive in their homes, threw grenades into basements and executed men. Four years later, a truce disintegrated, and Mansur was back at war. He says he was never the same after.
"Russia ruined everything I had. I grew up with war, and the war shaped me in all respects," Mansur, 40, says matter-of-factly.
Mansur is one of more than 200,000 Chechens
