MOSCOW (Agencies): The regional head, Ramzan Kadyrov, has announced that the Akhmat special forces unit from the Chechen Republic will incorporate 3,000 ex-Wagner PMC fighters. This move has been hailed as a significant boost to Russia’s defense capabilities.
A distinguished Wagner commander known by the call sign Ratibor will also join the elite Chechen unit. This development follows a failed mutiny attempt in June 2023 by the now-deceased Wagner chief, Evgeny Prigozhin. Following the incident, Russian authorities offered the group’s members a choice: sign contracts with the Defense Ministry or relocate to Belarus.
Kadyrov stated in a Telegram post that the necessary vacancies have already been allocated by Russia’s Defense Ministry to accommodate the newcomers in Akhmat. He added that other arrangements and formalities will be sorted out shortly, and the ex-Wagner fighters will soon be in action.
The Chechen leader praised the fighters as experienced and “very effective warriors,” who have demonstrated their prowess in Ukraine. He described the integration of such troops into Akhmat as a “strategically important step toward strengthening the country’s defense capabilities.”
“We are united by a single purpose – to defend the motherland and its interests. I am convinced that this decision will soon have a considerable impact on the progress of the special military operation,” Kadyrov concluded.
In February, the commander of Akhmat, Apty Alaudinov, informed the Russian media that his detachment comprises three separate units of former Wagner PMC fighters.
Akhmat is part of the Russian National Guard, an internal military force that reports directly to the president and the head of the National Security Council.
The Wagner Group played a pivotal role in capturing the city of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut) in Donbass last May.