28 Facts About Yunus-bek Yevkurov

Yunus-bek Bamatgireyevich Yevkurov was born on 23 July 1963 and is a Russian army general and politician.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov is a career soldier, paratrooper, and Hero of the Russian Federation who was involved in numerous conflicts where Russia played a key role, including Kosovo and Chechnya.

On 22 June 2009, Yunus-bek Yevkurov was seriously injured following a car-bomb attack on his motorcade in the city of Nazran.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov was appointed as a Deputy Defence Minister by President Putin on 8 July 2019.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov, an ethnic Ingush, was born on 23 July 1963 into a peasant family of 12 children, consisting of five sisters and six brothers.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov graduated from the same school that was later the scene of the Beslan massacre.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov was conscripted by the Soviet Army in 1982, serving in the Naval Infantry of the Pacific Fleet.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov continued his military education, graduating from the Frunze Military Academy in 1997 and from the General Staff Academy in 2004.

In June 1999, Yunus-bek Yevkurov was stationed in the Bosnian town of Ugljevik with the Russian peacekeepers under the auspices of SFOR.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov has had various positions of command within the Russian Airborne Troops and has participated in counterterrorist operations in the North Caucasus.

The Russian troops were able to break through the encirclement while Yunus-bek Yevkurov was providing cover for the evacuation of the wounded.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov personally carried a soldier to safety despite sustaining an injury himself.

In 2004, Yunus-bek Yevkurov was appointed to be Deputy Chief of the Intelligence Directorate of the Volga-Urals Military District.

On 30 October 2008, Yunus-bek Yevkurov replaced the highly unpopular Murat Zyazikov as the head of Ingushetia.

Zyazikov's dismissal and Yunus-bek Yevkurov's appointment were received with much enthusiasm from the Ingush population.

On 22 June 2009, Yunus-bek Yevkurov was seriously injured following a car-bomb attack on his motorcade in the city of Nazran at roughly 08:20 local time.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov suffered a ruptured liver, a severe concussion, and several cracked ribs, but was expected to survive following surgery.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov was then airlifted to a hospital in Moscow and was sent to intensive care with damage to his skull and internal organs, according to the New York Times.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov regained consciousness from a coma two weeks after the attack.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov was released from the hospital in Moscow on 12 August 2009, more than seven weeks after the attack, but continued to receive rehabilitation.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov was re-elected in the 2013 Ingush Head election.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov stepped down from his position permanently on 24 June 2019 after months of controversy over the land swap agreement with Chechnya signed in September 2018.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov had a decade-old spat with Ingushetian religious leadership from his appointment until he was excommunicated by the local Muftiate in 2018.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov decided to legalize the republic's non-violent Salafist community and include their mosques into the Muftiate.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov banned building a new mosque in Magas and ordered that all sermons in the republic's mosques be video recorded for later review.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov was appointed as a Deputy Defence Minister by a decree of President Vladimir Putin on 8 July 2019, being promoted to lieutenant general.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov has been sanctioned and put under restrictive measures by various countries, including the US, the EU, the UK government, New Zealand, Canada, Ukraine, Australia, and Japan.

Yunus-bek Yevkurov's nephew Captain Adam Khamkhoev was a commander of an airborne assault company and died on 21 May 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.