The commander of a Chechen special forces unit fighting for Russia in Ukraine is claiming that LGBT Ukrainian spies hacked his forces before the unit suffered major battlefield losses. Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said it carried out a successful operation against the Akhmat commando unit, describing it as one of the group’s heaviest defeats since the war began.
The agency also released recordings it said captured Akhmat commander Apti Alaudinov ( Ah-ptee- Ah-lah-oo-DEE-nov) criticizing Russia’s military capabilities and using homophobic language. In the recordings, Alaudinov (Ah-lah-oo-DEE-nov) allegedly said Russian artillery and tank crews don’t know how to shoot properly and referred to Russian paratroopers using a homophobic slur. Alaudinov (Ah-lah-oo-DEE-nov)denied the recordings were authentic, claiming Ukraine created them using AI.
In a sarcastic video posted to Telegram, he said, “Today I was horrified to learn that, apparently, my meetings had been eavesdropped on for two months by Ichkerian (EESH-keh-ree-uhn) and Ukrainian LGBT activists.” Ichkerian (EESH-keh-ree-uhn) refers to the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, a Chechen opposition movement whose fighters are aligned with Ukraine against Russia. Chechnya has faced international condemnation over alleged anti-LGBTQIA+ persecution, including reports of kidnappings, detentions, and torture of gay men between 2017 and 2019.
