Chechens Stage The Take Down Of An Insulation Factory

According to the Russian TASS news agency, Chechnya’s leader Ramazan Kadyrov reported that his troops took control of the Knauf factory in the town of Soledar.  This report is significant because Russian forces have had little to report in terms of territorial gains.  Soledar is located to the Donetsk Oblast,

The Chechen leader took to his Telegram channel to post that his Akhmat Special Operations Group and the LPR’s militia were successfully liberating territories including several dozen villages and four cities. Photographs seem to show Chechen, Luhansk Militia, Wagner Group, and regular Russian forces in the Knauf plant.

Ukrainian reports do not contain claims of heavy fighting in the area that would support these areas fell during active fighting recently.  In the photo below, the soldiers and their uniforms appear to be as clean as if they recently arrived in the country.

Kadyrov’s Chechen fighters have gained some notoriety as the “Tik-Tok Battalion” for posting videos on the social media app showing staged fights and mock battles displaying their heroism. Video of these forces liberating the plant does not show it to be the location of active fighting, while it has been previously subject to heavy shelling.  They did not capture an intact and functional facility but a bombed-out set of buildings with shattered windows and holes in the roof.  It won’t be producing insulation products for quite a while. Note the digital camera fixed to the helmet of the soldier in the center of the photo.