Video shows Chechen special forces fighters captured during Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region

The Ukrainian state-sponsored project Khochu Zhit’ (lit. “I Want to Live”) has published a video of approximately 30 people in military uniforms, their eyes blindfolded with paper and tape. When asked where they were from, three of the men responded “From Grozny,” the capital of Chechnya. The “I Want to Live” project claims that these are “Kadyrovites” — members of the Akhmat special forces unit — captured during Ukraine’s ongoing incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region.

“The raid teams caught up with these Kadyrovites deep in the rear of the border. According to them, they said they were attempting to escape to avoid being captured, since Ramzan Kadyrov once said that Akhmat's fighters would not surrender. Well, usually they do, since they sit in the rear, but the situation in Kursk was developing rapidly, and these Akhmat fighters did not even try to resist,” reads the accompanying text to the video.

The Ukrainian authors also write that the Kadyrovites are of particular value in any potential prisoner exchange, as Russian negotiators “take them first.” The post also claims that Akhmat is responsible for the fact that the Ukrainian army’s breakthrough across the border succeeded in the first place: “In fact, if they had been defending the border instead of hiding behind the backs of conscripts [...] near Kursk, such a quick breakthrough would have been impossible.