CHECHEN FIGHTERS SAID TO MOBILISE AS RUSSIAN CHILDREN FLEE BORDER

Thu 01 June 2023:

In the past week, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod area announced the evacuation of minors due to continued cross-border attacks from Ukraine. It is possible that Ramzan Kadyrov’s Chechen fighters have been ordered to take aleading role in the war in Ukraine.

The Wagner Group’s mercenary forces left the destroyed city of Bakhmut after the Wagner Group’s last report, according to the Washington, DC-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW). This led Russian military officials to likely order the Chechens into combat.

According to the ISW, Kadyrov claimed on Wednesday that his forces had received new orders and would be deploying to “active combat activities” to “liberate” a series of settlements after assuming responsibility for the front line in Ukraine’s southeast Donetsk region, which includes the contested city of Bakhmut.

Kadyrov said that Chechen special forces were preparing for offensive operations ahead of Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive to reclaim territory from Russian forces.

“The claimed return of Chechen forces to offensive operations would break Kadyrovites from a nearly yearlong hiatus from participating in high-intensity combat operations” in Ukraine, the ISW said.

Chechen fighters have primarily operated in areas behind the front line following their involvement in the bloody battles in Ukraine’s cities of Mariupol, Severodonetsk and Lysychanak, the institute said.

5/ The #Kremlin may perceive Chechen units as an untapped assault force that can restore #Russia’s ability to sustain simultaneous offensive efforts on multiple axes of advance.

— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) June 1, 2023

“The Kremlin may perceive Chechen units as an untapped assault force that can restore Russia’s ability to sustain simultaneous offensive efforts on multiple axes of advance,” the ISW added. However, the ISW also noted that if reports of 7,000 Chechen troops in Ukraine are correct, Kadyrov’s forces will not have the numbers “to mount multiple significant offensive operations successfully”.

Kadyrov, who identified himself as a “foot soldier” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has previously sent his country’s armed troops to support Russian military operations in Georgia and Syria.

Reports of a possible return of Chechen forces to offensive operations coincide with escalating bombardment of Russia’s Belgorod region, where officials have started removing children from the Shebekino and Graivoron regions.

Belgorod’s regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram on Wednesday that the first 300 evacuated children would be taken to Voronezh, a city about 250km (155 miles) further into Russia. Another 1,000 children will be removed to other provinces over the coming days, he said.

“The question of children’s safety in the two districts… is very important,” Gladkov said. “All of us, adults, are very worried.”

A correspondent for state-run agency RIA Novosti near Voronezh said buses had arrived with about 150 people on board on Wednesday.