In the first months of the war against Ukraine, the Chechen authorities created a recruitment channel for men from other Russian regions and sent them to the front as fighters of the “Chechen special forces.” This is stated in an investigation by Novaya Gazeta Europe. The paper reports that most of those recruits later were not Chechens, while payments to incoming volunteers were eventually cut by six times.
According to the newspaper’s sources, the idea of using the Russian Special Forces University as a recruitment hub in 2022 was proposed by Daniil Martynov, an aide to Ramzan Kadyrov on security matters. The target group included men rejected by military enlistment offices because of age, health, or lack of prior conscription service. In Chechnya, the requirements were lowered for them, while transport, accommodation, food, and brief training were arranged, with paperwork handled by employees of Grozny’s city administration.
The outlet says that over six weeks, from March 12 to April 25, 2022, Chechen authorities sent 928 volunteers to the front, including 908 ethnic Chechens. But from early April to May 4, 2022, the number rose to 1,496, of whom only 388 were Chechens. The remaining 1,108 belonged to other ethnic groups, mostly Russians. According to the investigation, these incoming recruits largely made up the “Akhmat” volunteer special unit.
By the summer of 2022, the unit was about 80% composed of fighters from other Russian regions, while Chechens, despite being an ethnic minority within it, held all command positions. At first, incoming volunteers were reportedly paid 300,000 rubles from the Chechen leader’s funds, but from June 2022 that amount was reduced to 50,000 rubles. Only in April and May 2022 were payments to outsiders comparable to those offered to residents of Chechnya.
Training at the university lasted from a few days to two weeks and, according to the paper’s sources, mainly depended on how quickly a group of 200 men could be assembled for dispatch by an Il-76 aircraft. Volunteers interviewed by the outlet said they managed to complete only a few theoretical classes and shooting sessions. Helmets and body armor were not issued, while better equipment could be bought at the university’s military shop at inflated prices.
The investigation also says that in 2023 and 2024, the number of contracts signed through the university fell by half compared with 2022. In 2025, Chechnya processed 3,374 volunteer contracts, whereas in the first nine months of 2022 more than 9,000 volunteers were recruited there. From January to April 2026, another 1,016 contracts were signed. A source familiar with the recruitment system told the newspaper that if one counts people rather than contracts, the flow through Chechnya has fallen nearly tenfold over four years.