Chechen special forces commander rejects claim his fighters were captured by AFU

The commander of the Chechen Akhmat special forces battalions, Apti Alaudinov, rejected claims on Tuesday that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) had captured several of his fighters during the ongoing fighting in Russia’s Kursk region.

The denial followed a video being shared on Sunday that appeared to show three blindfolded members of the Chechen Akhmat special forces battalion after their capture by the AFU.

According to Alaudinov, the Chechen fighters captured were from the unrelated Akhmat-Chechnya unit. He also said that the AFU had in fact captured five, not three, Chechen fighters, as was claimed in the video.

“We are aware that when you first entered [Russia], you captured three Akhmat-Chechnya fighters. We have seen them. We accept it. But when you say that you are actively taking Akhmat special forces soldiers captive — sorry, you do not have a single Akhmat special forces soldier,” Alaudinov said.

“A Chechen who gets captured is no longer one of Kadyrov’s men,” he said, referring to Ramzan Kadyrov, the brutal strongman who runs Chechnya for the Kremlin, because “there is nothing more shameful for a Chechen than to be captured.”

The Akhmat commander added that he knew the names of each of the captured Chechen fighters, and stressed that there were several Chechen units in the Russian army. Alaudinov also said that Russian forces were also now putting pressure on the AFU in the Kursk region, and that there was daily fighting in and around the town of Sudzha.