Al-Monitor has learned that the commander and members of Ajnad al-Kavkaz, a Chechen-led Islamic rebel group active in northern Syria, headed to Ukraine to fight against the Russian forces there. 

Sources from within jihadist groups in Syria told Al-Monitor that Chechen fighters from Ajnad al-Kavkaz fighting Syrian government forces in the countryside of Latakia recently arrived in Ukraine from Idlib, where they fought the Syrian government alongside the opposition. 

The same sources said that more commanders are expected to leave Idlib for Ukraine to escape the crackdown led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and to seek revenge against Russia and the forces of President Vladimir Putin’s ally, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

Humam Issa, an Idlib-based journalist, told Al-Monitor, “The Ajnad al-Kavkaz is a moderate, albeit jihadist group that did not interfere with the internal Syrian fighting and did not interfere in the affairs of the Syrian local community. Its main focus was on fighting the Syrian regime forces in the mountains and forests of the countryside of Latakia based on its fighting experience in rugged geographical areas.”