The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has claimed that the Chechen troops have returned to Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, after suffering heavy losses.

According to Mirror, the SBU said the soldiers were moved out of Ukraine after many of them were killed in the first three weeks of the war.

On February 26, a video began circulating of Chechen fighters raising a Russian flag on a military unit building in Gostomel, a village 50 kilometers northwest of the Ukrainian capital.

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Ramzan Kadyrov, President of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, had sent his soldiers to support Kremlin forces in Ukraine. In February, he denied reports that his soldiers had suffered casualties. Later, he acknowledged the death of two fighters without giving their names.

“Unfortunately, there are casualties among the natives of the Chechen Republic. Two died and six others were injured,” he wrote.

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According to the SBU counter-intelligence, the Kadyrovites were evacuated from the territory of the Kyiv region via Belarus and further, by air, to Chechnya.