The Chechen special unit Akhmat signed a service contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense on Monday, which the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgueni Prigozhin, had refused the day before.
The contract was signed by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Alexei Kim, and the commander of Ajmat, Apti Alaudinov, according to the military statement.
“I hope that in the future, in view of our first experience, the other volunteer units will also sign these contracts,” Kim said.
For his part, Alaudinov explained that Ajmat receives most of the weapons and equipment from the Ministry, so he considered it logical to legally regulate this situation.
The Akhmat group has often been called the “private army” of Ramzan Kadirov, leader of Russia’s Chechnya region.
Unlike Prigozhin, Kadirov has recently refrained from criticizing the Defense Ministry. On Thursday, one of Kadyrov’s allies branded Prigozhin a blogger who doesn’t stop yelling about his problems.
Akhmat’s commander, Apty Alaudinov, who participated in the signing of the contract, stated that the unit has “trained and sent tens of thousands of volunteers” to Ukraine in the past 15 months.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered on Sunday all voluntary formations, which now number more than 40, to sign the relevant service contracts before July 1.
“The decree allows all defenders to fulfill their military duty,” Kim said.
The aim is to grant such groups their due legal status, which includes social benefits to volunteers and their families, as well as improving the effectiveness of their employment on the battlefield.
According to the official note, the contracts can also be signed individually directly with the Ministry as professional soldiers.
However, Prigozhin, who has had a tense relationship with Shoigu for months, announced the day before that his fighters will not sign any contract.
“Those orders and decrees that Shoigu signs apply to the employees of the Ministry of Defense and military personnel. The Wagner private military company will not sign any contract with Shoigu,” the businessman said on his Telegram channel.
Prigozhin, who has also harshly criticized the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, maintained that the mercenary group is an independent and “highly effective” structure.
“Unfortunately, most of the military units are not as efficient and precisely because Shoigu cannot handle military formations normally,” he said.
Of course, he stressed that Wagner is “completely subordinate to the interests of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief”, Vladimir Putin.
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