Chechen Fighters Reported Killed and Captured by Ukraine’s Kursk Incursion

Reports have surfaced that Chechen fighters – some possibly belonging to the “Kadyrovite” Akhmat special forces – have been killed, injured or captured in Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region that started on Aug. 6.

On Sunday, Aug. 11, a Ukrainian project that provides support to surrendering Russian troops published a video of Russian prisoners of war (POWs), three of which claimed to have come from Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechen republic.

Ukraine’s 225th Separate Assault Battalion also published a photo of recovered multiple Russian military identity documents on Tuesday, Aug. 13.

Some seemed to belong to members of Chechen units, though it added that identification of some has been “complicated by the condition of the bodies,” as some fighters were killed while others retreated.

The documents released by the Ukrainian troops listed some of the fighters as 33-year-old Muslim Zayfullaev (platoon commander), 31-year-old Ilya Sizov (chief of staff), and Shamkhan Yanarkaev. All three reportedly served in Russia’s military unit No. 47084 but were also listed in unit No. 95374.

The photo released by Ukraine also showed a fighter called Arbi Kurbanov who was listed as the commander of the 1st platoon of the traffic police regiment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya and the commander of a company of the Vostok-Akhmat battalion of military unit No. 65384.

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Russian opposition news outlet Agentsvo claimed to have confirmed some of their identity. 

“Unit No. 47084 is the designation of the 58th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District, which has been participating in the war in Ukraine since its first days. Military unit No. 95374 is the 1434th Akhmat-Chechnya Regiment, as evidenced by documents from Yanarkayev and Sizov as well as a publication on a pro-war forum.

“The participation of the 1434th Akhmat-Chechnya Regiment in the battles in the Kursk region was reported by the Russian blogs  ‘Military Informant’ and Ukrainian sources,” according to Agentsvo.

The outlet identified Zayfullaev as a native and resident of Grozny, who “at least in 2019” served as a police officer in the Akhmat Kadyrov Special Police Regiment of the Chechen Interior Ministry, a regiment that’s known to have participated in the war in Ukraine.

Sizov, another fighter, reportedly came from Russia’s Volgograd region but moved to Chechnya prior to the 2022 invasion and served in Siberia and Chechnya according to leaked tax records.

Agentsvo said it failed to establish the identity of Yanarkaev, as available records showed two persons with similar names.

Agentsvo matched Kurbanov’s identity using leaked tax records, which showed that he worked in the Ministry of Economic and Territorial Development of Chechnya in 2019 and as a deputy general director of a Moscow car service company in 2022.

Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces, denied reports that members of his units had been captured, adding that “a Chechen who is captured is no longer a Kadyrovite” and “for a Chechen, there is nothing more shameful than being captured,” the Belarusian news outlet Zerkalo reported.