Chechen fighters claim readiness to hold Bakhmout front

The Battle of Bakhmout is not over. The paramilitary group Wagner, after claiming the capture of this city in eastern Ukraine in mid-May, began on Thursday May 25 the transfer to the regular Russian army of its positions in this city in ruins. The Kremlin troops have also temporarily relaxed their attacks on the besieged city, in order to regroup and strengthen their capacities, declared Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar on May 27.

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But still, the longest and bloodiest battle since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022 is far from over. And it is another private army that could take over: the Chechen fighters of Ramzan Kadyrov claim to be ready to hold the front in this region of Donbass. The order would have been transmitted on Wednesday by the Russian general staff: the Akhmat special forces led by the head of the Russian republic of Chechnya would have been instructed to deploy on different points of the front in the Donbass region, where Bakhmout remains the epicenter of the fighting.

A way to weaken Wagner?

Ramzan Kadyrov claims to have 7,000 men in Ukraine ready to return to active combat, having been behind the frontline for almost a year. At the start of the Russian invasion, they had participated in the battles of Mariupol, Severodonetsk and Lysytchansk, but what was remembered was not so much their combat value as their propensity to nurse their own dark legend, in bragging about their misdeeds in videos posted on social media.

Still, this deployment on this eastern Ukrainian front could allow the Russian regular army to reposition itself elsewhere, where the Ukrainians are preparing their counter-offensive. Finally, for Vladimir Putin, playing the Kadyrov card is also a way of weakening his rival Evgueni Prigojine, Wagner’s sulphurous boss, who is starting to take up a little too much space after this claimed victory.

The Ukrainian troops, for their part, claim “hang tight“the heights overlooking Bakhmout to the north and south, as well as part of the periphery, but they have not advanced in the last two days to focus on”other tasks“said Hanna Maliar.