The U.S. is considering funding and training the Ukranian army in its fight against Russia. Currently America has some 300 soldiers advising and training Ukranian forces, but is only providing non-lethal support. Yet there are Islamist paramilitary battalions fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, which are aligned with the Islamic State and Chechen Islamist factions. If the U.S. steps up military aid to Ukraine, whose army is notoriously corrupt it may fall into the hands of Islamist battalions currently funded by a mixture of Ukrainian oligarchs, Gulf patrons, violent crime and extortion. The Ruskayya Blatina website said that a few militias belonging to the terrorist group ISIS began to fight against the Russian soldiers in Ukraine with support from the American authorities who gave recommendations to the Ukrainian government regarding the Islamic State. These men fight in the Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion, among others, named for the late first president of Chechenya. There are many Chechens and Georgians fighting in the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The most eminent of these is Omar al-Shishani, a senior leader in the Islamic State who has featured in a number of their propaganda videos. There are reported to be some 500 fighters in the Dudayev Battalion, but other Islamists are fighting in other armed factions such as the Sheikh Mansour Battalion, a breakaway faction, and a Crimean Tartar militia. They maintain transnational contacts, made easy due to inexpensive and instantaneous mass communication. Fighters who fought against the Russians in Chechenya are now fighting for ISIS, while their erstwhile comrades in arms fight Russia in Ukraine. Many of those fighting in the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion have fought previously for the Islamic State. A journalist for The Intercept, Marcin Mamon, was able to gain access to the commander of the battalion Isa Munayev, shortly before his death, on the recommendation of ‘Khalid' a commander with the Islamic State (not his real name) who had fought with Munayev in Chechenya. These Islamist groups are fighting on the same side as neo-Nazi and white-supremacist battalions such as the Right Sector, and the Azov Group, which uses the 'Wolf's Hook' symbol of the SS. Islamic State-aligned fighters also use Ukraine as a cheap and easy place to buy weapons, which can then be smuggled to Iraq and Syria and Chechenya. At the end of June it was reported that a Chechen Islamist group with 'up to 15,000' fighters pledged allegiance to the Islamic state, becoming the Caucusus Emirate. It shoudl be noted that there are also Chechens fighting for Russia in the Ukraine. Other Russian Islamists have gone to wage jihad in Syria and Iraq. The manager of the Russian Federal Security Apparatus (FSB), Aleksadr Botanivok, estimated in June that the number of Russians fighting in Iraq is about 1,700. He expressed his concern regarding the growth of the effect of ISIS in Russia and called for more cooperation with Washington and the West on this issue. Experts believe there may be 5,000 Russians fighting for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Russian Minister of the Interior Vladimir Kolokholtsiv warned in press statements on June 5 of pockets of instability related to ISIS activity close to the Russian border. He said security forces in his country are closely monitoring Russian and foreign citizen jihadist recruitment in Russia and the authorities have the names of supervisors in jihadist recruitment centers in Moscow and other Russian territories. A report by the U.N. which was submitted to the Security Council at the end of May, estimated the number of the jihadists in the Islamic State is between 25,000 to 30,000, most of them foreign fighters. The transnational nature of jihadism and the ready and apparent Chechen links between the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and Islamist battalions in Ukraine, coupled with the willingness of those groups to fight alongside neo-Nazis should be taken into serious consideration when the State Department decides policy on aiding the Ukrainian government against Russia.
