Inside the Chechen Units Helping to Fight Russia’s War
Russia’s fighters are waging bloody battles in Ukraine’s east to add to its captured territory.
Moscow supports this war effort with soldiers from outside the regular army, including some from a training camp in Chechnya.
Some join for the money, others to escape everyday drudgery. But there are tearful goodbyes.
After hundreds of years of enmity with Russia, Chechens are deploying to Ukraine to fight Moscow’s war.
Mayhem awaits them, as evident in the devastation of the city of Bakhmut.
Inside the Chechen Units Helping to Fight Russia’s War
Photographs by Nanna Heitmann
Text by Neil MacFarquhar
Nanna Heitmann spent time observing Russian troops training in Chechnya, then later traveled to Bakhmut, Ukraine. Neil MacFarquhar reported from New York.
June 16, 2024
A hulking military transport plane roared onto the tarmac at the main airfield in Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic in southeastern Russia, and a group of 120 volunteer fighters heading for Ukraine clambered aboard.
Dressed in camouflage, the newly minted troops had just completed at least 10 days of training in Gudermes, near Grozny, at the Special Forces University, which accepts men from across Russia for general military instruction.
Some of the trainees lacked any combat experience. Others were veterans returning to Ukraine for their second or third tour — including former mercenaries from the Wagner militia, disbanded in 2023 after a short-lived mutiny against the Kremlin.
Chechen soldiers praying at the shooting range at the Special Forces University in Gudermes.
