German Parliamentarian Meets with Chechen Fascists in Ukraine

Conservative parliamentarian Roderich Kiesewetter speaks at a demonstration for Ukraine in Berlin, March 2025

By Susann Witt-Stahl, junge Welt, 29 April 2026. Translation and notes by Helmut-Harry Loewen.

The visit by CDU foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter [1] to the representative office of the “Chechen Republic of Ichkeria” [2] in Kyiv on April 14 was staged like a state reception. The meeting room was decorated with flags of the EU, Ukraine, and “Ichkeria.” The “pro-government” broadcaster I News accompanied its video footage with Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D major and displayed photos lined up on the wall of heroes of the Chechen wars, such as Supyan Abdullayev, former “vice president” of “Ichkeria” and field commander of the jihadist Caucasus Emirate. “Itchkeria” — which is not recognized internationally (except by Ukraine) — was represented by “Head of Government” Akhmed Zakayev.

“I have read a lot about you, about your past, and about the origins of your powerful resistance. I believe that we need partners who will not accept a colonial and imperial future for the Russian Federation,” I News quotes Kiesewetter as saying in conversation with Zakayev (the original audio of the recording is overlaid by the translation). “We are absolutely convinced that the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria will regain its state independence in the near future.” Kiesewetter did not reveal whether by “we” he meant the CDU party or even the federal government.

For Moscow, this is a diplomatic affront. “At the meeting, the German politician openly expressed support for the terrorists’ activities,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated, among other things. Attacks on Russian territory, including against civilians, have repeatedly been carried out by “Ichkeria,” which declared its independence in 1991. In 1999, a brief peace process was broken off by a separatist attack on the neighbouring republic of Dagestan, which triggered the Second Chechen War.

Akmed Zakayev, who commands a “special battalion of the Ministry of Defence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria” serving the Zelensky government, is a separatist leader who not only rejects a negotiated solution to the Ukraine conflict; he has also declared as his goal nothing less than the complete destruction of “evil.” “Russia must cease to exist,” Zakayev demanded in March in his speech at the campaign for “political prisoners of the captive nations” organized by the “Anti-Imperialist Bloc of Nations” (ABN) — led by the Bandera wing of the fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) — in London.

Zakayev, who lives in exile in Britain, is one of the ABN’s closest allies. In his lecture at the “XIII Bandera Readings” in 2026 in Kyiv [3], he praised its historical predecessor, the “Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations” — founded in 1946 and once the largest umbrella organization of Hitler collaborators worldwide — as a bulwark of the “united revolutionary struggle against Russian communism.” He also recalled the “Viking” battalion of the “Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian National Self-Defence,” organized within the “Right Sector” during the Maidan protests, which had fought alongside the separatists in the First Chechen War in 1994. Recently, Zakayev visited Stepan Bandera’s grave at Munich’s Waldfriedhof cemetery with OUN-B leader Oleg Medunizya and other fascists and laid flowers there.

On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned German Ambassador Alexander Graf Lambsdorff in Moscow over Kiesewetter’s contacts with the “Itchkeria” movement —classified by Moscow as a terrorist organization — and interference in internal affairs [4]. Lambsdorff dismissed the allegations as “completely baseless.” In his view, the CDU hardliner’s flirtation with the militant Bandera lobby falls under the practice of “diversity of opinion” ("Meinungsvielfalt") and the “free exercise of a mandate by an elected representative of the people.” Kiesewetter, meanwhile, seized the opportunity to further fan the flames: “Russia is acting as a terrorist state waging a war of annihilation against Ukraine,” he told dpa after calling on Germany to provide more support for Kyiv.

Notes:

[1] Roderich Kiesewetter is an influential spokesperson for the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on defence policy. Educated at the German Armed Forces University in Munich, Kiesewetter was posted at the European Council, NATO Headquarters, and the German Ministry of Defence. He commanded a German army battalion and took part in military missions abroad. From 2006 to 2009, he was head of the offices of the Chiefs of Staff of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Belgium. In 2009, he had a post at the Rapid Reaction Forces Operations Command (Kommando operative Führung Eingreifkräfte), until he was elected member of parliament on 17 October 2009 and retired from the Bundeswehr as a colonel.

Kiesewetter is the recipient of the General-Heusinger-Preis, the most prestigious prize in the Bundeswehr's officer training program. The award honours Adolf Heusinger who served from 1935 to 1945 in the Wehrmacht, working closely with Adolf Hitler as head of the Operations Department of the General Staff at the Army High Command. From 1955 to 1964, Heusinger helped establish the Bundeswehr, and served as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee. He was one of the former high-ranking Nazis who served as an advisor to the first West German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer. According to documents released in 2014 by the BND, the German Federal Intelligence Service (successor to the Gehlen-Organization), Heusinger was likely part of a secret army established by veterans of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in the early 1950s as an anti-communist force directed at the German Democratic Republic.

Screenshot of Akmed Zakayev speaking at the Bandera Readings, Kyiv, 2026

[2] From 1991 onward, the independent state proclaimed by Chechen separatists in 1991 — recognized internationally only by Ukraine — referred to itself as the “Chechen Republic of Ichkeria” (“Nóxçiyn Respublika Içkeri” in Chechen; “Čečenskaja Respublika Ičkerija” in Russian). Following its suppression by Russian troops in 1999, it functioned as an underground self-proclaimed counter-government to the Chechen Republic (Chechnya), a recognized member of the Russian Federation. A Chechen volunteer combat unit, the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion, which is fighting on Ukraine’s side in the Russian-Ukrainian war, uses a modified version of the Ichkerian flag as its insignia. As of 2022, other Chechen battalions are also fighting on Ukraine’s side, including the Sheikh Mansur Battalion.

[3] For background on the Bandera Readings, see Susann Witt-Stahl, “On the annual 'Bandera-Readings.'" Translated by Helmut-Harry Loewen. The Left Chapter, 7 Feb. 2025.

[4] See Elena Teslova, “Russia summons German ambassador over lawmaker's meeting with Chechen outlaw. Foreign Ministry accuses German lawmaker of encouraging anti-Russian activities, warns of consequences.” Anadolu Agency, 27 April 2026. "’The Ambassador was issued a decisive protest in connection with a recent meeting in Kyiv, facilitated by the Zelensky regime, between a Bundestag deputy, member of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs from the ruling Christian Democratic Union party, Roderich Kiesewetter and Akhmed Zakayev, the leader of the terrorist organization 'Chechen Republic of Ichkeria' banned in Russia and on an international wanted list,’ it said. According to the ministry, the German lawmaker ‘welcomed the anti-Russian activities’ of members of this organization, who had actively participated in Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Belgorod and Kursk regions. The ministry noted that Kiesewetter also urged Zakayev and his associates to actively cooperate with Berlin, including for the purpose of recruiting Russian emigrants living in Germany ‘to carry out operations aimed at destabilizing the socio-political situation’ in Russia.”

Bandera Readings, Kyiv, 2025, ABN screenshot