Which Chechen units have lost the most personnel fighting in Ukraine?

One of the most under-researched units features surprisingly high on the list.

Chechen units have been heavily involved in Russia’s war on Ukraine, with many rotating in and some created for the express purpose of fighting there. Indeed, there has been a proliferation of new units following the start of the “special military operation.”

This, naturally, gives rise to the question of which units have been most heavily involved in fighting (we’ll put aside for now the persistent accusation that avoiding fighting is something they are very good at).

One way we can answer this question is to look at confirmed casualties. Since January 2023, Kavkaz Realii have been updating a tracker on named people from the North Caucasus who they have been able to confirm killed. The results of this are surprising for what they reveal.

The list at present contains 9,861 names. Of these, 54 are identified as members of a unit whose name includes “Akhmat” (which covers most Chechen security service units these days). The breakdown of losses by unit is as follows:

• OMON Akhmat-1, a Rosgvardia unit led by Alikhan Shavkhalov: 26 killed.
• The “Akhmat” unit formed in Chechnya: 19 killed. The list is quite vague in places, but this presumably refers to Spetsnaz Akhmat, the “volunteer” unit led by Apty Alaudinov.
• Sever-Akhmat, a Ministry of Defence unit led by Zayndi Zingiyev: 11 killed.
• The Akhmat Kadyrov 141st Special Motorised Regiment (Sever), a Rosgvardia unit led by Ibragim Ismailov: 6 killed.
• SOBR Akhmat, a Rosgvardia unit led by Timur Edilov: 4 killed.
• Zapad-Akhmat, a Ministry of Defence unit led by Ismail Aguyev: 3 killed.
• Vostok-Akhmat, a Ministry of Defence unit led by Vakha Kambulatov: 3 killed.
• Yug-Akhmat, a Ministry of Defence unit led by Musa Iblayev: 1 killed.
• BOBR Akhmat, better known as the Ingushetian Batalkhadzintsy brotherhood that has allied with Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov: 1 killed.
• OMON Akhmat-Groznyy, a Rosgvardia unit led by Anzor Bisayev: 1 killed.
• Insufficient information: 5 killed. This is where the unit is identified as the “Akhmat regiment,’ which could refer to several different ones.

This information comes with all sorts of caveats. It is, for example, difficult to identify conflict deaths, and the units for many of the individuals who are identified are not specified. It also only includes people with links to the North Caucasus: Spetsnaz Akhmat, which has recruited people from outside the region, almost certainly tops the casualty list in reality.

Nevertheless, the high casualties experienced by OMON Akhmat-1 are somewhat surprising. This unit has received virtually no media coverage, but perhaps it should. It was created in October 2022 with the specific goal of fighting Russia’s war in Ukraine. Since then, it mainly seems to have operated in Zaporizhia Oblast. Yet it has also popped up in other unexpected places: Its members, for example, were also involved in the recent raid on the Wildberries office in Moscow.

I’ll be investigating the unit to see if there are any other interesting aspects of its operations. More to follow in due course…