21:18, 5 September 2025

A group of fighters left Grozny for the military operation zone

Another group of volunteers trained at the Russian Special Forces University flew from Grozny airport to the military operation zone in Ukraine.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, the Chechen authorities regularly report on sending groups of fighters from the republic to the military operation zone in Ukraine. 61,221 fighters have been sent from Chechnya to participate in the military operation in Ukraine, of which 22,321 are volunteers, while 13,000 fighters are in the combat zone, Ramzan Kadyrov reported on August 5.

The data on the total number of security forces sent from Chechnya does not include military personnel who have left the combat zone, are in barracks, on leave, or have left the combat zone as part of rotation. At the same time, since November 2022, Kadyrov has accompanied each report on the dispatch of another group with an appeal to contact the Grozny mayor's office and sign up as a volunteer, and regularly emphasizes that the flow of volunteers is not decreasing and there are no problems with their recruitment. He also regularly reports that there are many residents of other regions of Russia among the volunteers.

Another group of fighters flew on a special flight to the SVO zone. The flight departed from Grozny airport. "For some of those going to the SVO, this is not the first mission. Each of the fighters underwent training under the guidance of instructors at the special forces university in Gudermes. The training included mastering the skills necessary to perform complex service tasks," the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov said today.

The Russian Special Forces University is a training center organized by Ramzan Kadyrov in Gudermes, where volunteers are trained for deployment to the war zone and where the Akhmat special forces are based. "Caucasian Knot" has prepared a report "What is taught at the Putin Special Forces University in Chechnya".

Coercion methods are widely used in Chechnya to send to the SVO. Thus, three 16-year-old schoolchildren have been held in one of the security forces of Grozny since December 2024 without charges, the Memorial Human Rights Defense Center (included in the register of foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice) reported in early July. Relatives of those illegally detained in Chechnya often try to secure their release on their own and only in extreme cases turn to human rights organizations, but publicity does not always help, human rights activists pointed out. On July 14, it became known about the release of the teenagers on the condition that their relatives sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense. The detention of Chechen teenagers to force their fathers to sign military contracts under Russian and international law falls under the definition of hostage-taking, lawyers said, noting that legal protection mechanisms do not work in Chechnya.

"There is evidence from Chechnya that people were beaten, threatened with criminal cases, torture, just to get a signature on a contract," a representative of the NIYSO Telegram channel told the "Caucasian Knot." According to him, this is done to demonstrate loyalty to the Kremlin. "It is important to report on the "contractor plan," and the Ministry of Defense is using the vulnerability of the local population: unemployment, fear of security forces, administrative pressure. People are literally driven into the army," he said.

On January 14, volunteers who arrived in Chechnya to sign a military contract, complained that they were being kept locked up for weeks in order to be sent to the combat zone instead of local residents who had paid off their service. According to human rights activists, coercion to sign contracts is practiced in Chechnya, and security forces may create an "exchange fund" from volunteers who arrived from other regions, who will sign contracts instead of local residents.

Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/415168