Chechen leader announces he will send more troops to Ukraine

Leader of Russia's Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov (Photo: AFP).

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on November 27 that 3,000 of his soldiers were ready to fight in Ukraine. These soldiers are part of new units of the Russian Defense Ministry and the National Guard.

"The soldiers are equipped with the best equipment and modern weapons. In addition, these servicemen have high fighting spirit and are very motivated to achieve results," Mr. Kadyrov said.

In May, Mr Kadyrov said that Chechnya, a Russian republic, had sent more than 26,000 troops to Ukraine at the start of the conflict, including 12,000 volunteers, and that at the time, 7,000 of them were still fighting on the front lines.

In early November, Mr. Kadyrov announced that a large group of former members of the Russian private military company Wagner had begun training with Chechen special forces.

Wagner played a prominent role in some of the fiercest fighting between Russia and Ukraine, but its future was thrown into doubt when its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in August, two months after he led a rebellion that was swiftly defeated.

It is unclear how many former Wagner members participated in the training or whether any of them will stay on to join the Chechen forces after the training ends.

Earlier, on October 29, Chechen leader Kadyrov said he had recruited 170 Wagner soldiers for a new battalion. "I welcome the decision of the Wagner soldiers. Their military experience will help them to perform their assigned tasks well," said Mr. Kadyrov.

The Chechen Republic is a predominantly Muslim region. Although still part of the Russian Federation, the Chechen Republic has been granted considerable autonomy by Moscow.

In September 2022, Mr. Kadyrov announced that the region had established the OMON Akhmat-1 special task force to serve Russia's military operations in Ukraine.

According to him, this force consists of 2,000 soldiers who are well-trained, well-equipped and have ideals. He also affirmed that the number could increase because many Chechens expressed their desire to go to the battlefield.

In June, the Russian Defense Ministry signed a contract with the Chechen Republic's Akhmat special forces. Under the contract, volunteers will receive the same rights and guarantees as regular soldiers, including support for them and their families if they are injured or killed.

According to Fox News , Chechen special forces have been deployed to hunt down terrorists in Syria and have been deployed by Russia to fight elsewhere, including in Georgia. The force is also believed to have fought Ukrainian forces in the separatist Donbass region, when the conflict began in 2014.

In June, Mr Kadyrov said Chechen forces had helped Russia seize 36 settlements from Ukraine, including Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, and the city centre of Popasna in Lugansk, as well as the “hot spot” of Mariupol last year.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/lanh-dao-chechnya-tuyen-bo-se-gui-them-quan-chi-vien-toi-ukraine-20231128070808148.htm