Russia is sending a ragtag group of soldiers to fight in Ukraine that aren't its main army because of 'significant resourcing problems,' UK intelligence officials said.
The assessment came in an update published Wednesday, which said that relying on irregular forces was hampering Russia's ability to attack Ukraine.
The officials said that the Kremlin was forced to look elsewhere for soldiers partly because of its huge losses while capturing the city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine.
Among those being deployed were "several thousand" Chechen forces loyal to the warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, the update said.
—Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) May 18, 2022
Kadyrov is a Putin loyalist whose personal militia — also known as "Kadyrovites" — are widely reported to have been fighting in support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
As well as Kadyrov, who "likely maintains close personal oversight of the deployment", his cousin Adam Delimkhanov has likely acted as the Chechen field commander in Mariupol, the update said.
Ukrainian intelligence has already identified Kadryov's forces as being heavily involved in the invasion, saying they "were involved in house searches, the bullying of hostages and civilians, robberies and looting".
Last month, Ukraine claimed that Kadyrov said he would provide help with assassination attempts against Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kadyrov claimed in April that Mariupol would fall "tomorrow, or, in fact, today, before or after lunch". In the event, it took nearly a month longer.
In Wednesday's update, the MoD said these "individual volunteers and National Guard units" were also part of Russia's forces, contributing to its relative lack of success in its incursion.
"The combat deployment of such disparate personnel demonstrates Russia's significant resourcing problems in Ukraine and is likely contributing to a disunited command which continues to hamper Russia's operations," it said.
