Former Wagner Group mercenaries are joining Chechnya’s Akhmat battalion, says Chechen commander

Former Wagner Group mercenaries are joining Chechnya’s Akhmat battalion and heading to the war in Ukraine, Akhmat Battalion Commander Apti Alaudinov told RIA Novosti, calling it a “mass influx.”

Alaudinov said he believes Wagner Group fighters choose the Akhmat battalion due to a “similar ethos between the commanders and fighters in the unit, a high level of training, and Akhmat’s provision of everything necessary for combat operations.”

In June, Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the Russian Defense Ministry of launching an attack on a Wagner camp. He subsequently led a short-lived rebellion. Prigozhin’s life came to an abrupt end in a plane crash in August. In late September, a Ukrainian soldier reported that Wagner mercenaries had returned to the Ukrainian battlefield.