Chechnya’s Akhmat unit reportedly suffers heaviest casualties since beginning of full-scale war
Chechnya's Akhmat unit has reportedly suffered its heaviest losses since the beginning of the war as a result of a Ukrainian missile strike, representatives of the opposition movement NIYSO claimed on Tuesday. To support their claims, they published numerous videos showing human casualties, as well as the obituaries of those killed.
According to NIYSO, Ukraine carried out a missile strike on a facility being used as a deployment site for the unit. According to the activists’ source, around 60 soldiers were killed, while many others were wounded.
The activists also published photographs of several of those believed to have been killed in the strike and a video allegedly filmed after the fact. The footage appears to have been shot in a forested area and shows bodies lying on the ground. In the background, people can be heard speaking in Chechen. There has been no independent verification of the authenticity of the material.
NIYSO claims that the youngest person killed in the missile strike on Russian army positions was an 18-year-old identified only as Rasul from the village of Komsomolskoe. According to the activists, he had spent less than a week at the front.
The total number of Akhmat’s troops is unclear; various sources put the figure at between 1,000 and 30,000.
The Chechen authorities and Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces, have not commented on or denied the reports of losses. The Ukrainian side has also not publicly commented on the missile strike.
These are not the only major losses reportedly suffered by Akhmat in the past month. Earlier, Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence Directorate (HUR) stated that one of its agents had installed a listening device in a meeting room used by Akhmat. According to the agency, as a result of that operation the regiment suffered what were then described as its largest losses of the war: 41 soldiers killed and 87 wounded. More than one hundred additional soldiers were reported missing.
‘More than 160 armoured and military vehicles were also destroyed or damaged, along with more than 25 UAVs of various types, as well as communications equipment, EW/ELINT systems, engineering equipment and machinery, weapons depots, fuel storage facilities and other means of warfare’, the HUR claimed.
Elizaveta Chukharova
The recordings published by the HUR included several remarks allegedly made by Alaudinov, including criticism of the Russian army.
‘Most of our artillery crews and tank crews do not even know how to fire properly. Yes, they know how to do many things, but they cannot hit anything. I have been saying this throughout the fourth year of the war… In essence, they have never actually fought in four years. They have never experienced modern combat operations, and now they are expected not only to advance and seize positions, but also to hold them and repel counterattacks — and that is not easy’.
Afterwards, Alaudinov commented on the reports by Ukrainian intelligence about the alleged infiltration of an agent into his inner circle.
‘Today I learned with horror that, apparently, for two months my meetings were being listened to by Ichkerian and Ukrainian LGBT people who — well, I have to say — deserve top marks for their work with artificial intelligence. And of course, for doing your LGBT work’, he said.
Alaudinov also asked why they had ‘done nothing’ regarding his activities and described them as ‘storytellers’.
