Veterans Returning from Ukraine War Already Sparking Ethnic Clashes in North Caucasus

Paul Goble

    Staunton, May 15 – Many in the Russian Federation are already worried about what will happen with veterans of Putin’s war in Ukraine return home. Many expect serious problems as veterans seek jobs and housing or turn to a life of violent crime. But the situation may become especially dire in the North Caucasus where such returnees are already sparking ethnic clashes.

     A bellwether for such a trend came in a portion of Dagestan last November when returnees from one ethnic group, the Avars, were given land, while those of another ethnic group, weren’t, something that led Grozny to intervene (kavkazr.com/a/geroi-svo-i-zemeljnyy-konflikt-v-dagestane-protiv-chego-protestuyut-chechentsy-akkintsy/33201086.html).

    Because the clash between Avars and Chechens in that location has been longstanding, the particular role of returning veterans in intensifying the conflict attracted less attention. But now there is a development in Ingushetia, the smallest federal subject by territory, that suggests conflicts over land arising from returning veterans may be about to become more serious.

    Ingush head Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov says that his government has distributed land to more than 550 veterans of the war in Ukraine, allowing them to jump a queue consisting of several tens of thousands of residents to do so (fortanga.org/2025/05/zhdut-desyatki-tysyach-kalimatov-priznalsya-v-prioritetnom-vydelenii-zemel-uchastnikam-vojny/ and kavkazr.com/a/v-ingushetii-zayavili-o-prioritetnoy-razdache-zemelj-uchastnikam-voyny-v-ocheredi-na-ljgotu-desyatki-tysyach-semey/33414886.html).

    Because land is in such short supply in Ingushetia, disputes over who gets an allocation of land and who does not have often turned violent, and at least some of these clashes have been intensified when those who do and those who do not are members of different nationalities or clans (t.me/fortangaorg/15356 and t.me/sunzha_rayon/6897).  

    Adding the returning veterans who often across the North Caucasus consist of local minorities will only exacerbate the problem and mean that any accords that allow significant number of veterans of the Russian armed forces to return from the war in Ukraine may soon trigger a new outbreak of war in the North Caucasus.