Kadyrov soldiers at front: ISW passes off Prava Sprava's insights as its own intelligence

The ISW review notes that the Russian military command probably ordered the troops of Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov to launch offensive operations in Ukraine after the withdrawal of Wagner PMC forces from Bakhmut.

The ISW points out that Kadyrov said on May 31 that Chechen forces had received a new order and had taken responsibility for the front line in the Donetsk region.

He also said that Chechen units should begin active combat operations and liberate a number of settlements.

Instead, on May 19, the analytical department of the Ukrainian Prava Sprava (Right Cause -ed.) NGO released information that Russian special services decided to 'clean up' private military companies. In particular, those that are formed on a national basis. 

“We can assume with a certain degree of confidence that the Kremlin already considers armed groups based on ethnicity to be potentially dangerous. First and foremost, it is Kadyrov's formation. Because it has recently begun to play a certain overly independent role.

The last straw in this was the Muslim marches that recently took place across Russia and were a telling demonstration of strength,” Prava Sprava said.

Let me remind you that Kadyrov said that his 'troops' would be able to replace the Wagner Group's mercenaries in Bakhmut. It is noteworthy that Kadyrov's statement about the deployment of Chechen troops to Bakhmut and its 'liberation' came after Prigozhin's statement. In this way, Prigozhin puts Kadyrov in front of this fact, and he simply has no choice but to agree.

According to Prava Sprava analysts, this reshuffle, at the behest of Russia's intelligence services, will put Kadyrov's formations under the knife.

By and large, Kadyrov's units were created as an internal structure to suppress the resistance movement in Chechnya itself. In other words, these were police units that relied on the support of local authorities, plus the tribal nature of its formation.

It is worth mentioning that the command of the Russian occupation group entrusted the same police or 'barrier' functions to the Kadyr soldiers on the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory.

Currently, according to Prava Sprava, units of the 96th Operational Regiment of the North Caucasus District of the Russian National Guard under the leadership of Magomed Tushayev have been redeployed to the combat zone.

In addition, the so-called Russia's Defense Ministry stated that assault units of the 5th Detached Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 1st Army Corps and the Akhmat special forces are conducting offensive operations in the Marinka direction.

Specially for Espreso

About the author. Dmytro Sniehyriov, columnist for Espreso.

The editors don't always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.