Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrovsaid Sunday that his Akhmat military unit has been deployed to the site of difficult fighting in the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.Fighting has picked up near Bakhmut, the site of the longest battle of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in recent days despite the Wagner mercenary group claiming to have captured the city in late May.The special operations command redeployed the Akhmat special forces under the command of Apty Alaudinov to the difficult Bakhmut area, Kadyrov said.This rotation speaks of the General Staffs trust and the units high combat effectiveness, Kadyrov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.Ukraines Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar corroborated Kadyrovs account ofheavy fighting around Bakhmut.Ukraines militarysaid Monday it had liberated 24 square kilometers of territory surrounding Bakhmut since launching its counteroffensive in June.Akhmat last month became thefirst Russian volunteer detachment to have signed a contract coming under the Defense Ministrys formal command contrasting with the Wagner Group, which balked at the ministrys order.Kadyrovsaid in May that the annexed and partially occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk fell under Akhmats area of responsibility.The exact number of Chechen troops who make up Kadyrovs Akhmat special forces is unknown.Kadyrov, a Kremlin loyalist who has ruled over Chechnya with an iron fist since 2007, saidlast month that Akhmat is made up of three divisions.Kadyrov hasclaimed that Chechnya had sent 26,000 fighters to Ukraine, 7,000 of whom were on the frontlines as of May 2023.