“Al-Qaeda lands in Ukraine”, “Zelensky makes a pact with the jihadist devil to save the furniture”, “Desperate Kyiv troops call on terrorists”… The rumors that have been multiplying for a few days on social networks s come closer to a Kamoulox than to the information that it is usually possible to read there.
However, several Internet users are formal: Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine, cornered in the conflict which opposes them to Russia since the invasion of the latter, would have called on the Islamist terrorist organization Al-Qaida to try to win. against Vladimir Putin.
If the rumor is surprising, it is not to be taken lightly… 20 minutes make the point.
FAKE OFF
If a large part of the publications which advance these allegations are posted by more or less openly pro-Russian profiles, an in-depth research abroad makes it possible to see more clearly.
According to several media in the Middle East, including Al Monitor, jihadists would have gone to Ukraine in recent days. But they would not be sent by Al-Qaida.
It would be Chechen fighters members of the Ajnad al-Kavkaz group and led by Rustam Azhiev. Better known as Abdul Hakim al-Shishani, this veteran of the Chechen wars and his battalion had been present in Syria for many years and fought against the forces of Bashar Al-Assad in a coalition of armed Islamist forces, mainly in the Idlib region.
An Islamist group opposed to Kadyrov and Russia
This group is an offshoot of the former Caucasus emirate, an Islamist terrorist organization, self-proclaimed state and launched in 2007 by the “president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria”, Dokou Oumarov an opponent of Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of the Republic Chechen and supporter of Vladimir Putin.
Unable to return to Chechnya, the Ajnad al-Kavkaz group decided to go to Syria alongside other Islamist organizations, to fight the Russian-backed government. Because this is one of the engines of this group: to face the Russian troops wherever they are, as revenge for the two wars in Chechnya.
Alongside Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Syria
Although the group was once part of the Al-Nusra coalition, founded by an Islamic State envoy and linked for several years to Al-Qaeda, it has repeatedly declared itself “neutral” in the various wars of influences between the movements that formed this coalition, claiming only the fight against the forces of Bashar Al-Assad.
This neutrality seemed to be confirmed in 2015 when members of the Caucasus Emirate pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and Ajnad al-Kavkaz declared that he was no longer part of the Emirate (whose leaders refused allegiance to ISIS ).
But in fact, by continuing to fight against the Syrian government, the group will continue to fight alongside groups linked to the Islamic State. But the forces that have ruled the Idlib region since 2020 are said to have little appreciation for Ajnad al-Kavkaz and several leaders have reportedly been arrested.
According to Canadian journalist Neil Hauer, the battalion commander left Syria in March for Ukraine, then joined by several other fighters with the aim of fighting Russian forces. If the number of members of the group arrived in Ukraine differs according to the sources, they are estimated between 25 and 70 fighters.
Another journalist quoted by Al-Monitor, and based in Idlib, Human Issa, describes Ajnad al-Kavkaz as “a moderate, albeit jihadist, group that did not interfere with internal Syrian fighting and did not interfere in the affairs of the local Syrian community”, but mainly concerned with the fight against Syrian troops and their Russian ally.
This would be the reason for their presence in Ukraine according to Human Issa, which quotes another commander of the group, Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Shishani: “We hoped to fight the Russians in Syria, unfortunately that did not happen. There they are present only by the air force. But in Ukraine, we will be able to face them directly on the battlefield. All enemies of Russia are our friends. »
If the presence in Ukraine of these jihadists does not make them more popular, it is still wrong to believe in an alliance between Ukraine and Al-Qaeda.