A gift for the tragic anniversary: Ukraine recognises Ingush right to statehood
26 February 21:19
80 years ago, on 23 February 1944, Stalin celebrated Red Army Day by sending all the Ingush, along with their Chechen relatives, to the Kazakh steppes. And 11 years earlier, he had starved several million Ukrainians to death. Now Ukrainians, along with the Ingush and other peoples, are united to resist Putin’s neo-Stalinist regime. The symbol of this unity was the decision of the Verkhovna Rada to recognise the right of the Ingush people to their own statehood, adopted on the same day – 23 February. It is important that the Prigorodny district of North Ossetia-Alania and the city of Vladikavkaz (the Ingush name for Buro) were recognised as Ingush. These lands were taken away by Stalin in 1944. Russia has not returned them to this day.
The resolution “On the recognition of the right of the Ingush people to create an independent sovereign national state, condemnation of Russia’s crimes against the Ingush and restoration of the territorial integrity of Ingushetia” was supported by 248 deputies out of the required 226.
The text of the resolution outlines the historical background to this decision of the Ukrainian parliament. In particular, the document states that Russia does not take into account the results of the referendum “On the establishment of the Ingush Republic within the RSFSR with the return of illegally alienated Ingush lands with the capital in Vladikavkaz” of 30 November 1991. At the time, the vast majority of Ingush voted in favour of restoring their territorial integrity in a referendum.
In 1992, during the clashes between Ossetians and Ingush, the Russian armed forces and the Ministry of Internal Affairs acted on the side of the Ossetians and committed mass crimes that fall under the definition of crimes against humanity.
Russia is also eliminating the state-building institutions of the Ingush: the president is appointed from Moscow, the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the republic are ignored, the Muftiate and the Council of Teipas are subordinated to the executive branch and special services, the territory of the republic continues to be reduced, repression intensifies and the national identity of the Ingush is being destroyed.
In addition, the Ukrainian MPs noted the adoption of the “Declaration of Supporters of the Independence of Ingushetia” by the Ingush Independence Committee in Istanbul in January 2023.
Taking these facts into account, the Verkhovna Rada recognised the right of the Ingush to create their own state.
In January 2023, representatives of the Ingush community living in Turkey, Arab countries, the European Union and Russia announced the establishment of the Committee of Ingush Independence (CII) at a congress in Istanbul. In the same year, the Committee’s representative, Ahmad Ozdo, addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and supported Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.
Ansar Garkho, the Chairman of the CIN, in his commentary to Kommersant Ukrainian noted that for the first time, the right of the Ingush to act as a political entity has been recognised at the international level.
“The resolution is a gesture of goodwill towards the Ingush, it is symbolic, it is a response to the shelter given by the Ingush to those Ukrainians who fled the Holodomor in the North Caucasus in 1933. There are cases when the NKVDists killed Ingush for helping Ukrainians. For the first time, the 1992 ethnic cleansing was mentioned at the international level, and this is a great support for us. We plan to rely on this resolution in the future at the international level, as there is a precedent for Ukraine’s recognition. The resolution refers to the Declaration and the Ingush Independence Committee, which is very important for us. People are still fleeing Ingushetia today, being persecuted for political reasons. So we have to carry out human rights work, and in this context, the resolution is also important. The document is the result of our organisation’s cooperation with Ukrainian politicians, it was a serious political and diplomatic work. Now the Ingush problem and the aspirations of our people for independence have appeared on the international agenda, so when the time comes and we start liberating our lands, it will not be a surprise to the world, they will not ask “who are these Ingush people and why did they decide to take advantage of the collapse of Russia?”, said Mr Garkho.

Member of the Verkhovna Rada Yaroslav Yurchyshyn believes that the document is also important for Ukraine. “For Ukraine, this resolution opens up opportunities to communicate with the Ingush Independence Committee as a representative body of the Ingush people. And to promote international recognition of this representative body, the proto-Cabinet of Ministers. We are already publishing maps that show the Chechen republic of Ichkeria as independent, and the territory of Ingushetia can be shown in the same way. At a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, I addressed the deputies and called on the world to pay attention to the enslaved indigenous peoples of the so-called Russian Federation, because they are now under double pressure. They are not asked whether they agree to participate in the war with Ukraine, they are being exterminated, and conditions are not created for the development of national languages and culture, and there are few indigenous representatives in local governments. This is not an easy path, but Ukraine has made the first step and we will share this experience,” said Yurchyshyn.
The Ingush are a Nakh people, related to the Chechens, and speak a language close to Chechen. The estimated number of Ingush in the world is 600,000.
In 1944, along with Chechens, the Ingush were deported to Central Asia. About 40% of the people died of cold, hunger and disease. The lands of the Ingush were partly transferred to the Ossetian autonomy and partly to the Georgian SSR.
After the return of the Ingush from deportation in 1956, the highland Jeyrakhi district was returned from Georgia to the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Republic, while the Prigorodny district, which had been transferred to Ossetians, remained part of Ossetia.

In 1992, Moscow-backed Ossetians massacred Ingush in the Prigorodny district, leaving about a thousand Ingush dead and missing.
During the first and second Russian-Chechen wars, the Republic of Ingushetia served as a place of rest and treatment for Chechen resistance fighters, and hundreds of Ingush took part in the war on the Chechen side.
After the defeat of the Chechens in the war with Russia and the establishment of the Russian governor Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya, a somewhat milder occupation regime was established in Ingushetia. From time to time, the FSB and the Centre for Countering Extremism of the Russian Interior Ministry conducted so-called “counter-terrorist operations” in the republic’s cities and towns, killing active young men who professed the Salafi version of Islam.
In response, the Ingush attacked the military and officers of the FSB and the Russian Interior Ministry. However, unlike Chechnya, Salafi mosques and preachers operate relatively freely in Ingushetia. Russian special services have completely exterminated the Salafis in Chechnya, but in Ingushetia they have chosen a different form of control over Muslims: they artificially maintain tension and confrontation between followers of Sufi orders and Salafis.
In 2019, mass protests took place in the administrative centre of the republic, the city of Magas, against the decision to transfer land that the Ingush consider theirs to Kadyrov’s Chechnya, which was not agreed with the people. The protesters failed to get the decision to transfer the land to Chechnya cancelled, and the initiators of the protest were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms.
Moscow governors in Ingushetia, who coordinated the repression, were promoted to high positions after the dismissal of the republic’s president. FSB general Murat Zyazikov is now the Russian ambassador to Cyprus, and professional military officer Yunus-Bek Yevkurov is now the deputy minister of defence of the Russian Federation, and is actively involved in the war against Ukraine.
Several dozen Ingush are currently fighting on the side of Ukraine as part of volunteer battalions.
Author: Anvar Derkach