A group of Daghestani soldiers who have fought in Ukraine have argued that those who interfere with land distribution in the region should also be sent to the front. It is the latest episode in a long simmering dispute involving Daghestan’s Aqqi Chechens, who have campaigned for decades for the restoration of the Aukh District, which was dissolved following the Soviet deportations. 

The soldiers appealed to Sergei Melikov, the head of the republic, to punish those ‘interfering’ with the distribution of land by sending them to go fight on the front in Ukraine. 

The soldiers accused Aqqi Chechens who live in the region of illegally removing land demarcations as part of a plot to claim the disputed territory for themselves.

The incident was the latest episode in a dispute over land that dates back to the dissolution of the USSR, but whose roots begin in the mass deportation of Chechens during World War II. 

In 1944, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered the expulsion of the entire Chechen and Ingush population, collectively known as the Vainakhs, from their ancestral lands. As many as one-third died during the deportation. They were allowed to return from exile in Siberia and Central Asia following Stalin’s death, but were unable to resettle in the Aukh District in Daghestan. In the interim period, the district was carved up into neighbouring districts, and signs of its Chechen heritage, including the Chechen names of villages, were erased. 

The restoration of the Aukh District and the return of the land to the ancestors of the deportees, has been a central demand for decades, which has at times escalated into ethnic tension and violence. 

In 2017, following a fight between local Avars who resettled the Aukh District and Aqqi Chechens, the then head of Daghestan said he would support a limited form of land repatriation to the historic community. 

The dispute simmered for years, but Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine appears to have reignited the issue. 

A disproportionate percentage of men from the North Caucasus has reportedly been sent to fight in Ukraine, and a disproportionate percentage have been killed or wounded as a result. 

Earlier in 2024, Daghestani authorities began distributing land to the widows and families of soldiers killed in Ukraine, which Aqqi Chechens said violated the spirit of the 2017 agreement. 

Local politicians have warned that failing to continue the programme of redistributing land back to the Aqqi Chechens could result in further ethnic conflict in the area.