Dramatic footage shared by Ukraine's military intelligence agency appears to show Chechen fighters targeting a Russian vehicle traveling through Ukraine.
In a clip posted by the Main Directorate of Intelligence in Ukraine's Defense Ministry, Chechen troops in military fatigues open fire on a passing military truck, which swerves from the tarmac and crashes by the side of the road. The fighters approach the vehicle, continuing to direct fire at the driver's cabin.
The details of this footage could not be independently verified, including the location, where it was filmed, and whether the fighters were Chechen. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment via email.
Text accompanying the Ukrainian Defense Ministry video reads: "Chechen soldiers continue the fight against the Russian invaders, protecting the Ukrainian and Chechen peoples. As a result of the operation, the military equipment and personnel of the Rashists [derisive term for Russian troops used in Ukraine] were destroyed."
Chechen soldiers have been present in Ukraine throughout the war, fighting both for Ukraine and on Moscow's behalf.
Chechnya is a Russian republic in the south of the country that fought two wars since the early 1990s to break away from Moscow. However, under current leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chechen fighters have fortified the Russian military and mercenary ranks in Ukraine.
But some Chechens have come to Kyiv's aid, seeing the conflict as a parallel war to that which tore through Chechnya as the Soviet Union disintegrated. Many are thought to have come from diaspora communities, rather than passing from Chechen territory into Ukraine.
Many Chechen headed to the battlefields in Ukraine with "long-standing grievances" and against Kadyrov's brutal regime in Chechnya, and therefore "see the fight for Ukraine as contributing to their long-term goal of Chechen independence," Mikhail Alexseev, a political science professor at San Diego State University, previously told Newsweek.
A longer clip showing the ambush has also surfaced online, which shows soldiers passing the camera that looks to be worn by another fighter on a nondescript road. The group walks through fields before the footage switches to show the wearer hiding behind a tree, with the sound of traffic in the background before the targeting of a Russian vehicle, adorned with the letter Z at the front.
In the video, the slain soldier driving the Russian vehicle is filmed lying sideways on the seat with gory injuries to the head. Newsweek has not embedded or linked to this extended footage due to its graphic nature.
Chechen fighters battling for the Kremlin, sometimes pejoratively known as the "TikTok army" for their tendency to post themselves online, have taken on a higher profile in the war in recent weeks.
After his militia acted as a cleansing force or military police behind the front lines in the earlier parts of the conflict, Kadyrov said in May that it would take over from the retreating Wagner Group mercenaries battling in the fiercely contested Donetsk city of Bakhmut.
Pro-Russian Chechen fighters had not been reported in major combat operations for nearly a year, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said in late May.
Both Russian and Ukrainian sources show that some pro-Russian Chechen forces are fighting around Bakhmut as of Sunday, the ISW said over the weekend.
