The move comes as the Kremlin tries to control the private armies fighting on its behalf in Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has signed a contract with the Akhmat Group of Chechen Special Forces, a paramilitary group conducting the Kremlin offensive near the town of Maryinka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
The announcement came on Monday, a day after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner Group of private mercenaries, refused to sign such a contract.
The deals are part of a new Russian law aimed at controlling the private armies fighting on behalf of Moscow in Ukraine.
It requires all “volunteer units” to sign contracts by July 1, and puts them under the control of the country’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The Kremlin says volunteer fighters will get the same benefits as regular soldiers if they agree to the rules of the defense contract.
“I think this is a very good thing,” said Commander Akhmedapty Alaudinov after the group’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, accepted the offer.
He added that his group had “prepared and sent tens of thousands of volunteers” to Ukraine over the past 15 months.
So far, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, Chechen fighters have operated in areas behind the front line after engaging in bloody battles in Ukrainian cities, including Mariupol. And Severodonetsk, and Lysychanak.
But after fighting intensified in Russia’s Belgorod earlier this month, Kadyrov’s forces were likely ordered to take a leading role in the fighting in Ukraine, according to the institute.
Over the weekend, Prigozhin said his units “will not sign any contracts with Shoigu.”
“Shoygu cannot properly control the military formations,” Prigozhin said in an audio message he posted on his press service on Saturday.
Chief Wagner has repeatedly criticized the Russian Defense Ministry, arguing that it does not provide sufficient support for his forces in Ukraine.
Putin’s ally often unleashes obscene video tirades, blatantly mocking Moscow’s military leadership.
Kadyrov declined to criticize the Defense Ministry.
And the deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, Colonel-General Alexei Kim, after signing the agreement with Chechnya, said that he hoped that other volunteer units would follow his example.
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