The Ukrainian World Congress extends its most sincere greetings to the Chechen people on Ichkeria’s Independence Day.
Thirty-two years ago, on September 6, 1991, the All-National Congress of the Chechen People, led by the Chechen national leader Dzhokhar Dudayev, proclaimed the restoration of the independent statehood of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
Unable to use the force of arguments against Chechen independence, Moscow decided to use the argument of force and unleashed a full-scale brutal war against the Chechen people in December of 1994. Later, in 1999-2009, the Putin regime completely crushed the Free Ichkeria and installed the pro-Kremlin Kadyrov clan to rule Chechnya as a subject of the Russian Federation instead.
On October 18, 2022, the parliament of Ukraine adopted a resolution recognizing the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation and condemning the genocide of the Chechen people.
Russia’s deadly aggression against a free and independent Ichkeria was the first manifestation of Moscow’s modern neo-imperialistic and misanthropic ideology, which Dzhokhar Dudayev called “Ruscism.” A great friend of Ukraine, Dudayev, warned in 1995 that Russia wouldn’t stop in Chechnya and that Georgia and Ukraine would be Moscow’s next victims.
Today, hundreds of Chechen volunteers are fighting for the freedom and independence of Ukraine shoulder-to-shoulder with the Ukrainian defenders. Ukrainians cherish many of them as our modern heroes.
We thank the Chechen people for their support in Ukraine’s existential war with the Russian aggressor state. We also believe that Ukraine’s victory will help dismantle the Russian prison of nations and bring freedom to Ichkeria, its proud and courageous people.
Glory to the heroes of Free Ichkeria!
