{"id":74106,"date":"2024-06-16T09:34:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T09:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/16\/inside-the-chechen-units-helping-to-fight-russias-war\/"},"modified":"2024-06-16T09:34:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T09:34:04","slug":"inside-the-chechen-units-helping-to-fight-russias-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/16\/inside-the-chechen-units-helping-to-fight-russias-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Chechen Units Helping to Fight Russia\u2019s War"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/19\/world\/chechnya\/chechnya-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Inside the Chechen Units Helping to Fight Russia\u2019s War\" title=\"Inside the Chechen Units Helping to Fight Russia\u2019s War\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<div class=\"css-zera2v\">\n<div class=\"css-103l8m3\">\n<div class=\"css-1e2jphy epjyd6m1\">\n<div class=\"css-233int epjyd6m0\">\n<p class=\"css-1xuzukf e1jsehar1\"><span class=\"byline-prefix\">Photographs by <\/span><span class=\"css-1baulvz last-byline\" itemprop=\"name\">Nanna Heitmann<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1xuzukf e1jsehar1\"><span class=\"byline-prefix\">Text by <\/span><span class=\"css-1baulvz last-byline\" itemprop=\"name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/neil-macfarquhar\" class=\"css-n8ff4n e1jsehar0\">Neil MacFarquhar<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"enhanced-byline\" class=\"css-8atqhb\">\n<p class=\"css-m7kxl4 e1wtpvyy0\">Nanna Heitmann spent time observing Russian troops training in Chechnya, then later traveled to Bakhmut, Ukraine. Neil MacFarquhar reported from New York.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time class=\"ep4cyha0 css-1jby7xd e16638kd0\" datetime=\"2024-06-16T05:27:20-04:00\">June 16, 2024<\/time><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A hulking military transport plane roared onto the tarmac at the main airfield in Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic in southeastern Russia, and a group of 120 volunteer fighters heading for Ukraine clambered aboard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dressed in camouflage, the newly minted troops had just completed at least 10 days of training in Gudermes, near Grozny, at the Special Forces University, which accepts men from across Russia for general military instruction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some of the trainees lacked any combat experience. Others were veterans returning to Ukraine for their second or third tour \u2014 including former mercenaries from the Wagner militia, disbanded in 2023 after a short-lived mutiny against the Kremlin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some Wagner fighters, chafing at the idea of working for the Russian Defense Ministry, instead transferred whole units to the Chechen-trained forces, known as Akhmat battalions, intended in part to absorb fighters from outside the Russian Army. Wagner veterans were often first recruited from prison, including a lean man with a gold front tooth, identified only by his military call sign, \u201cJedi,\u201d because of the potential for retribution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cGo for your Fatherland? What kind of Fatherland? It kept me in prison all my life,\u201d said Jedi, 39, a construction laborer who was convicted of robbery and fraud. In and out of jail since 14, he had six months left on a six-year sentence when he signed up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe volunteers go for the money,\u201d he said. \u201cI have yet to meet anyone here for the ideology.\u201d He also wanted a clean slate, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Fat signing bonuses plus payments of about $2,000 per month, at least double the average wage in Russia, has spurred recruitment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The training near Grozny highlights the evolution of ethnic loyalties that is manifest in this war. Some of those now training there were last in Chechnya as young conscripts for the Russian Army, fighting against Chechens who were part of the separatist movement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The participation of some Chechens represents another inversion of history: After hundreds of years of enmity with Russia, Chechens were deploying to Ukraine to fight Moscow\u2019s war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The separatist movement of the 1990s culminated in two brutal wars against Moscow that lasted intermittently for over a decade. The city of Grozny was flattened, and tens of thousands of Chechens died.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ramzan Kadyrov, the authoritarian leader of Chechnya, has taken an aggressive stance toward Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February 2022. Chechen forces have claimed an instrumental role in some key battles, including the siege of Mariupol early in the war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Mr. Kadyrov has faced accusations that he has refrained from sending his fighters full-bore into the fight, with Chechens dying in fewer numbers than soldiers from other minority areas. Sparing his fighters keeps intact his private militia, the core of the security forces that ensure his rule in Chechnya.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Instead, Mr. Kadyrov has tried to underscore his loyalty to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia by pouring resources into this military training center. The regimen consists of live fire exercises with artillery, some mining and demining instruction and first aid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The various Akhmat battalions were named, like so much in Chechnya, after Mr. Kadyrov\u2019s father, Akhmat Kadyrov, who switched sides to join Moscow in the separatist struggle and was then assassinated in 2004.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russia has recruited troops for its war effort wherever it could find them, seeking to minimize the need for a draft. In 2022, it lifted an almost blanket ban on Chechens serving in the Russian military, fallout from the separatist movement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Of the group being dispatched to Ukraine last fall from the tarmac in Grozny, many were in their 30s and 40s, and fewer than 10 were Chechens. Despite Jedi\u2019s claims, money is not the sole motivation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some fled troubled domestic lives. Others wanted to escape daily drudgery. Some, of course, profess to be fighting out of patriotism. Many of the men agreed to talk on the condition that they be identified by only their first names or military call signs for fear of retribution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Anatoly, 24, was among 10 men who volunteered together from a small farming village high in the mountains in the picturesque, south-central Altai region. \u201cMy father forced me to shovel snow, to work, to clear out the dung from the cows,\u201d he said. \u201cI ran away from this work to do something else. Every year is the same.\u201d He admitted that the money was an incentive, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Another rural worker, a 45-year-old shepherd who uses the call sign \u201cMasyanya,\u201d traveled about 4,500 kilometers from the Republic of Khakassia for the training. \u201cI\u2019m going to defend my motherland, so the war doesn\u2019t come here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The contract with the Akhmat battalion lasts only four months, a big incentive when compared with the open-ended deployments for regular soldiers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last fall, Mr. Kadyrov formed a new unit, the Sheikh Mansour battalion, named after an 18th-century imam who fought against the Russian Empire. The soldiers are all Chechens or from the small, neighboring republics in the mountainous Caucasus region, and are mostly in their 20s. Chechens fighting for Ukraine against Russia named their battalion after Sheikh Mansour first, and now Mr. Kadyrov is trying to reclaim the name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Turpal, 20, was working as a security guard for a large supermarket chain in Moscow when he got permission from his father to sign up for the new unit, saying that he wanted to fight against \u201cthose devils who are in Ukraine who want to bring their perverted ideas here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As he left to go back to the training center after a weekend visiting his parents, he hugged his mother and shook hands with his father. \u201cRussia has been fighting for all its existence,\u201d said Mayrali, Turpal\u2019s father. \u201cYou can\u2019t beat it. It is better for Chechnya to be with Russia than to be against Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Wagner veterans serve in the Sheikh Mansour battalion, too. A 35-year-old fighter who uses the call sign \u201cDikiy,\u201d or \u201cWild,\u201d said that he had served 18 months of a nearly 10-year sentence for murder when he signed up. He fought in Ukraine for 11 months, was wounded three times and still gets fierce headaches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Back in Chechnya, he found the idea of working for $200 per month demoralizing, so he returned to the war. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to do anything else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Akhmat troops are better equipped than the regular army; unlike some regular Russian soldiers, they do not have to buy their own basic equipment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Jedi said that when he first deployed with Wagner in Ukraine, some young men in the Russian Army came running up begging for supplies, for fuel and for bread. \u201cIn Akhmat, I don\u2019t even wash my socks. I wear them, throw them away, wear them,\u201d he said. \u201cThe same applies to underwear and bed linen. We have everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Moscow subsidizes an estimated 80 percent of Chechnya\u2019s budget, though it is unclear how much goes to military training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the airfield, before the battalion departed, a senior officer lined up the new soldiers to wish them good luck. \u201cAre the fighters ready?\u201d he shouted. \u201cYes sir,\u201d they bark in unison, followed by the Muslim expression \u201cAllahu akbar!\u201d or \u201cGod is great!\u201d plus the Chechen war cry, \u201cAkhmat Sila!\u201d or \u201cAkhmat rules!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Once they arrived in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, some of the men were assigned to maintain Russian control over Bakhmut, now an abandoned husk of a city after months of fierce fighting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The streets are deserted, especially during the day, when Ukrainian drones roam overhead, hunting for targets. On foggy days, fighters can sometimes be glimpsed walking through the rubble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Traffic rumbles to life at night, when the wounded from battles scattered around the Bakhmut region are evacuated. The roads are littered with burned cars and ambulances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While the war grinds relentlessly above ground, the roar of artillery and exploding shells does not penetrate far beneath the surface, where the Akhmat forces have taken over a field hospital first set up by Wagner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Bakhmut region was once famous for its sparkling wine, and the hospital operates in the maze of underground tunnels where tens of thousands of bottles remain stored along the walls. (The prohibition on drinking it by both Wagner and Akhmat has been largely respected.) Once a tourist attraction, the old d\u00e9cor is still intact; dusty plaster statues of ancient gods loom over the wounded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The caves are wide enough to accommodate at least two vans abreast, and several times a day, vehicles ferrying the wounded and the dead navigate the darkened, fog-shrouded labyrinth. Soldiers leap from the vehicles and quickly carry their often groaning comrades on stretchers to the makeshift stabilization point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One of the surgeons, Bulya, 34, has worked for Wagner, mostly in Africa, since 2017. On trips to Moscow, he said, people there reacted to seeing him in his fatigues like \u201cdirt under your fingernails,\u201d but in Chechnya, he found more respect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As losses pile up, Bulya said that he was eager for the Russian Army to make it to Kyiv. \u201cI don\u2019t need their negotiations,\u201d he said using an expletive. \u201cI hope that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin will do that, that we will go to the end. We will get there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Anastasia Trofimova contributed reporting from Grozny and Bakhmut.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/16\/world\/europe\/chechnya-russia-ukraine-war.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photographs by Nanna Heitmann Text by Neil MacFarquhar Nanna Heitmann spent time observing Russian troops training in Chechnya, then later traveled to Bakhmut, Ukraine. Neil MacFarquhar reported from New York. June 16, 2024 A hulking military transport plane roared onto the tarmac at the main airfield in Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/19\/world\/chechnya\/chechnya-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67738,4822,19644,211,11380,3102],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74108,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74106\/revisions\/74108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}