Chechen special forces launch offensive in eastern Ukraine, Russia says

The Akhmat group of Chechen special forces is pushing forward near the town of Marinka, Donetsk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday, CNN reports.

The town has been reduced to rubble, having been on the frontline for much of the war. 

The Ukrainian military has said there are Chechen units at various points along the front lines in Donetsk region.

On Wednesday, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov had said that the Chechen special forces were preparing for the offensive. He pointed out that the territories of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) became their “zone of responsibility”.

“According to the order, the fighters of the Chechen units must begin active combat operations and liberate a number of settlements,” Kadyrov said in a Telegram statement. 

On the morning of June 1, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Russian Wagner PMC, posted a video stating that his main units were withdrawing from Bakhmut. At the same time he said he did not know what Kadyrov forces would do in Donbas and in what areas.

"They don't have the task of liberating the entire DPR. And Kadyrov, as far as I understand, didn't talk about that. They will deal with certain areas,” Prigozhin said. 

This prompted a wave of harsh criticism from Kadyrov’s allies. Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces, stated that Prigozhin allegedly had all the means the Akhmat special forces did not have. The commander argued that the Chechen units had enough forces to liberate the entire territory of the Donetsk region.

• On June 1, the Institute for the Study of War said that the Russian military command wants to replace Prigozhin’s Wagner group with Kadyrov units in offensive operations in Ukraine. Kadyrov noted that the Russian military command ordered the Russian National Guard and Chechen Akhmat forces to begin offensive actions along the frontline in Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts as well.

• On June 2, military expert Dmytro Sniehyriov said that Russia aims to dispose of PMCs by deploying them to Ukraine’s most dangerous areas