Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Chechnya's Akhmat battalions are said to be seriously undermined by lack of equipment and training, low morale, and tensions between their Chechen and non-Chechen members – who comprise the majority, despite the battalions being commonly described as "Kadyrovites". ⬇️

2/ Akhmat's creation was announced in June 2022 by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, with four groupings: "North Akhmat", "South-Akhmat", "West-Akhmat," and "East-Akhmat". They were originally supposed to be staffed exclusively by ethnic Chechens.

3/ In practice, reports Kavkaz.Realii, the battalions only have an "extremely small proportion" of Chechens. The rest are volunteers from across Russia. According to one member, only 5 men in his 23-strong platoon were Chechens – the others were all of different ethnicities.

4/ Battalion members taken prisoner by the Ukrainians say that the Chechens "take care of their own", treat the non-Chechens badly, and only send units with large numbers of non-Chechens into front-line fighting.

5/ Sergei Medvednik volunteered for Akhmat after being recruited by a Chechen friend who said he was earning good money guarding the unit's commander, well away from the front line. He traveled to occupied Donetsk to sign a contract on 6 July. He was captured only a week later.

6/ Medvednik says only 6 of the 51 members of his unit were Chechens. They were sent to the front line "with the task of sitting down and keeping a low profile ... 200 metres [from Ukrainian positions]." He says that he "did not understand the meaning of the mission."

7/ "There was no preparation, no coordination. [In the unit] all Russians were treated with prejudice by the Chechens: give and take, clean up, bring. I didn't see a single Chechen near or in front of me in these positions. They take care of their own.

8/ "They themselves said: 'We are Chechens, we are family'."

Akhmat includes mobilised Chechens as well as volunteers. Salakh Gaitamirov had been a police inspector in Grozny but was mobilised along with other members of the Chechen security forces.

8/ They themselves said: 'We are Chechens, we are family'."

Akhmat includes mobilised Chechens as well as volunteers. Salakh Gaitamirov had been a police inspector in Grozny but was mobilised along with other members of the Chechen security forces.

9/ He was assigned to the North-Akhmat battalion and was sent to fight near Bakhmut, where he was captured. In contrast to the non-Chechens, who were rushed to the front line, the Chechens stayed in the Donetsk region for more than a month "just eating, doing nothing special".

10/ According to another captured Akhmat fighter, the battalion only provides its members with clothes, uniforms, sleeping bags and unloading gear. Its members have to buy or barter for their own equipment, and are equipped with obsolete small arms.

11/ Andrey Stadnik, a volunteer from Bryansk, says that the men would buy used equipment from the regular troops, who were making a profit by selling off the belongings of their wounded comrades. Bottles of vodka were used as payment.

12/ Akhmat's soldiers are poorly motivated, according to captured members. Many of them refuse to go into frontal assaults and refuse to follow orders on the front line. Medvednik says that before he was captured, more than half of his unit had fled from their positions.

13/ Andrey Stadnik and Nikita Komarovsky were sent as part of a group of 23 men with orders to take a Ukrainian trench 300 metres from their positions. Only six of them made it, with the remaining 17 men fleeing before the assault had even begun.

14/ The men's quality is doubtful, as official recruitment standards are not followed. Those over 49, with criminal records or with serious illnesss are allowed to join "if they are lively and have had combat experience," even though the official requirements disallow this.

15/ According to Stadnik, Akhmat is short of men and so "there was no one to train with". He had no training. Officers are selected in a "closed way," appointed from personnel with prior military experience, while the infantry volunteers are not subject to serious requirements.

16/ The Akhmat fighters sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence, rather than directly with the Chechen government. They were originally assigned to different units around Russia, rather than to a single Akhmat unit. This reportedly changed in the summer of 2023.

17/ While the largely non-Russian Akhmat volunteers fight on the front line, the elite all-Chechen Akhmat special forces unit stay well behind – 50 km away, according to Stadnik. They are said to make only occasional short visits to the front once every couple of weeks.

18/ Instead, according to Mikhail Savva at the Centre for Civil Liberties in Kyiv, the Akhmat special forces engage with impunity in systematic looting in the occupied territories. He says they impose a "bandit tax" on people and businesses in the region.

19/ "The scale of looting by the Kadyrovites is higher than by everyone else," says Savva. "Not only toilets are stolen, but combine harvesters, whole industries are taken out.

20/ "It is not without reason that a large group of Sharia judges arrived in the occupied territories this year. They are needed to consider property disputes between their own." /end

Source:
kavkazr.com/a/ne-chechensk…