Chechen Akhmat special forces commander allegedly dies of overdose

Akhmat special forces battalion commander Zelimkhan Batukaev, known by the call sign ‘Shustry’, died on 23 February 2025, allegedly of a drug overdose.

The Chechen opposition movement Niyso claimed in a post on Telegram that Batukaev had died while on holiday in Chechnya, far from the front lines in Ukraine.

Later, speaking to OC Media, Niyso representatives said that their sources were probably wrong — Batukaev did reportedly die of an overdose, but he was probably not in Chechnya at the time.

‘Those who served with him said that Batukaev was [heavily using] all kinds of pills and drugs, that he mixed them with energy drinks and drank several a day. In recent photos and videos of him, it is strongly noticeable that he is not just fat, but swollen. This is a characteristic feature of drug addicts who take these pills, they swell, they look like inflated balloons’, a Niyso spokesperson told OC Media.

According to the Niyso representative, there were no Chechens in Batukaev’s battalion, only ex-convicts.

‘Because he had no authority among ordinary Chechens, on the contrary, he was insulted and humiliated for being ‘put down’ [allegedly raped] in prison. That’s such information about him. And in general, such killers, who can kill without blinking an eye, have their own weight and price at the front’, the Niyso spokesperson said.

In contrast, Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces, claimed Batukaev’s cause of death was a brain haemorrhage caused by overexertion after three days of continuous combat missions without sleep.

Alaudinov emphasised that Batukaev was ‘an absolutely religious man, without bad habits’. He described him as one of the best commanders in the Russian army, emphasising his dedication and the high results of the battalion under his leadership.

Official representatives have yet to release any additional information about the investigation into the circumstances of  Batukaev’s death.

Batukaev had previously fought against Russia in the Second Chechen War, and was convicted twice. In 2011, he was found guilty of illegal arms trafficking and in 2016 of robbery, murder, and the willful destruction of property. In the latter case, he and his accomplices killed a taxi driver in Krasnodar in order to steal a car, which they then sold in Chechnya. For these offences, Batukaev was sentenced to 19 years in a strict regime colony.

After his release, presumably through recruitment by the Wagner mercenary group, Batukaev joined the Akhmat special forces under the command of Alaudinov. In October 2023, he was awarded the Order of Courage for his participation in combat operations in Ukraine, and later received the Order of Akhmat Kadyrov.

In August 2024, Batukaev threatened to seize a house from a Niyso representative. Batukaev recorded a video in the background of the Niyso representative’s house in which he stated, ‘You and your kind will never live in this courtyard, this courtyard will be given to me and I will build a big house here’.

‘He’s actually my neighbour. He and I have known each other since childhood’, the Niyso representative told OC Media.

‘He and I have been members of the resistance since we were kids, fighting against the Russian occupation. Then I was wounded, got a prison sentence, [and] moved abroad. He escaped from the forest, from the resistance, and became a Kadyrovtsy, a traitor, you could say. Knowing that I was still fighting on the information front, he decided to show off like this, went to our family village, shot a video against the background of my house, threatening me that he would take my house away from me. He also threatened to kill me’, the Niyso representative added.

Among the commanders and fighters of the Akhmat Chechen unit, there are many who fought on the side of the Chechen resistance during the Chechen wars. Alaudinov, the Akhmat special forces commander who announced Batukaev’s death, was himself a member of the Interior Ministry of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the 1990s. However, he later defected to Russia, making a career in the Russian security services.

Another example is Adam Delimkhanov, now an MP and one of Ramzan Kadyrov’s closest associates. In the 1990s, he was involved in the activities of armed formations that opposed the federal troops. He later became head of the Chechen riot police (OMON) and then commander of the Zapad battalion, which carried out special operations against militants. In 2022, Delimkhanov participated with Akhmat fighters in battles in Ukraine, calling the full-scale military invasion ‘sacred’.

Chechen units such as the Akhmat battalion and other groups are often used by Russia for propaganda purposes. They are credited with taking part in some of the fiercest battles, such as those in Mariupol and Sievierodonetsk, but analysts note that they mainly act as barricades and quell discontent among the Russian military.

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OC MediaElizaveta Chukharova