Russia’s Marginalised Ethnic Minorities Are Fighting Back Against Putin

Ethnic minority groups in Russia are increasingly rising up in defiance against Vladimir Putin after being blamed for committing some of the worst atrocities of the war in Ukraine. 

When the strategic Ukrainian city of Mariupol finally fell to Russian forces, it was images of Chechen soldiers cheering and chanting in front of bombed-out, burning buildings that went around the world. Shocking footage that emerged last month showed a Russian soldier – reportedly from a Chechen unit – castrating a Ukrainian prisoner.