Zachistka

Zachistka (Russian: Зачистка [zɐˈt͡ɕistkə]) is a Russian military euphemism for "mopping up" inside of occupied enemy territory. While the word nominally implies securing an area by clearing out any remaining hostile forces within it, it is notoriously associated with operations involving the mass killing and pillaging, and sometimes ethnic cleansing, of civilian populations by soldiers or other siloviks. These operations were particularly widespread in the Second Chechen War, when they frequently took the form of organized house-to-house searches by Russian troops in a variety of Chechen villages. In English contexts, "zachistka" is exclusively used to embody Russian war crimes in Chechnya and Ukraine.

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