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

Source: Meduza

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.