I watched a video on Instagram this week showing a man from Ukraine addressing his followers. Suddenly there was the sharp sound of a fighter jet flying past. I looked up at the sky but saw nothing. Then there was a powerful explosion of a bomb being dropped.
I ripped my headphones out of my ears, covered my head with my hands, and quickly hid under the table, as I had done so many times at home in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. A few seconds later I realised that the fighter jet and the explosion were on that Instagram video. It was the most powerful flashback to Russia’s bombardment of Chechnya I had experienced in the past ten days.
In September 1999, Russia launched the Second Chechen War against Chechnya, a republic in Russia’s North Caucasus, which had been seeking to become independent. Until 2001, Russian troops waged a brutal war in the republic, besieging Grozny. Civilians who couldn’t flee remained trapped in basements under heavy bombing, suffering from cold and hunger.
