Ramzan Kadyrov called the situation on the front line defended by the Chechen special forces “Akhmat” “difficult”, but assured that the military leadership in Moscow trusts his fighters, reports The Moscow Times.

“The command of the special operation transferred the Akhmat special forces under the command of Apti Alaudinov to the difficult area of ​​Bakhmut,” Kadyrov said in a message on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

Both Kadyrov and the Russian media commonly refer to Chechen units by the generic names “Akhmat Battalion” or “Akhmat Forces”, although several Chechen units bear this name. For example, in June last year, Kadyrov announced the formation of 4 new battalions exclusively made of Chechens under the names “Akhmat” South, North, West and East.

The corresponding units are named after his father Akhmat Kadyrov.

“This rotation testifies to the General Staff’s confidence in the combat capability of the unit,” Kadyrov noted in Telegram.

His comments are surprising to say the least, given that Kadyrov has been declaring since May that the defense of frontline areas in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions is the responsibility of his “Akhmat” troops.

Chechens led by Kadyrov would also seize the positions occupied by Wagner’s mercenaries.

In turn, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the “Wagner” PMC, announced at the beginning of May that he would withdraw his fighters from the city of Bakhmut and hand over their positions to Kadyrov’s Chechens, whom he then described as “our comrades in arms.”

But Prigozhin’s subsequent comments about exactly where the Chechen forces would be at the front infuriated their leaders, who distanced themselves from him in early June, more than 3 weeks before Wagner’s mercenary uprising.

On June 12, the Ministry of Defense of Russia also announced that the fighters of “Akhmat” signed professional contracts to transfer to the command of the Russian army, which was requested by Sergei Shoigu, but refused by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Actually, the head of the Wagnerites later referred to the order signed by Shoigu as one of the reasons why he started the military mutiny on June 23-24.

Khanna Malyar, Russia’s deputy defense minister, said on Monday that heavy fighting was again taking place around Bakhmut after Russian forces managed to capture the entire city in late May.

Ramzan Kadyrov claims to have sent 26,000 Chechen fighters to Ukraine, 7,000 of whom were still at the front in May, when he last spoke about it.

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