▶ Chechen fighters train outside Kyiv, Ukraine, August 27. After training, the soldiers, in camouflage footwear and protective gear, are heading to the front lines in Ukraine, vowing to continue the fight that raged over 15 years in the North Caucasus. Fighters from Chechnya, the war-scarred Russian republic, are participating on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine. Pro-Kyiv volunteers are loyal to Dzhokhar Dudayev, the late Chechen leader who headed the republic's drive for independence from