A number of commentators have made comparisons between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the 1990s wars between Russia and Chechnya, notably the Battle of Grozny.[12][13][14][15] Russian human rights group Memorial director Aleksandr Cherkasov stated that "Putin started the same way in Chechnya as he has in Ukraine and continues as we move to a new stage of the conflict. It also began with a war that was originally called a ‘counterterrorist operation’ and was not described as an armed conflict."[16] Tracey German of King's College London wrote that: