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Ukraine has claimed a major victory that could turn the tide of the war with Russia.
Fighters loyal to the infamous Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov have been captured by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region during a stunning incursion on Vladimir Putin’s territory.
Footage shows dozens of men blindfolded, with their hands tied, sitting in lines. Some appear bloodied, with bandages around their wounds.
Two of them can be heard telling a Ukrainian soldier they are from Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.
The video was released by the I Want to Live (Hochu Zhit) project run by Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence late on Sunday night.
A statement alongside said: ‘Raid groups caught these Kadyrovites deep in the rear from the border.
‘According to them, they tried to escape to avoid being captured, since Ramzan Kadyrov once said that Akhmat’s fighters do not surrender.’
Medics help a local resident in a field hospital at an undisclosed location in the Kursk region on August 11, 2024 (Picture: AFP)
I Want to Live said Kadyrov’s forces were ‘hiding behind conscripts near Kursk’, which is why Ukraine made ‘such a quick breakthrough’.
Apti Alaudinov, from the Chechen Akhmat unit fighting for Vladimir Putin, was among the first to acknowledge the colossal losses in the Russian border region.
‘Our people died, that’s a fact. The enemy has entered several settlements, he said in a video published on August 8 by independent Russian outlet Agentstvo.
This comes amid revelations that there are so many dead Russian soldiers in Kursk that no attempt has been possible to identify and process them since August 7.
One estimate says Ukraine has captured 1,200 people as prisoners of war (PoW), in addition to occupying at least 28 settlements.
Fighters wearing Wagner insignia at an undisclosed location in the Kursk region on August 11 (Picture: AFP)
In addition to Chechen fighters, it was reported that the Wagner Group is also redeploying mercenaries to the border region to halt the incursion.
‘Didn’t I say there would be some good news? So here you go – Wagner Group fighters are returning to Russia,’ pro-war blogger Yegor Guzenko wrote on his Telegram channel Thirteenth last week.
Last night, Ukraine announced that it has captured 386 square miles of Russian sovereign territory in the last week.
With the Kremlin still struggling to repel the attack, commander Oleksandr Syrskyi told president Volodymyr Zelensky: ‘We continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region.
‘Currently, we control about 386 square miles of the territory of the Russian Federation.’
The commander provided scant other detail, continuing Ukraine’s strategy of silence.
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