Russian Army HQ Burns Down in Chechnya, Saboteurs Claim

Rospartizan, an anti-war, anti-Putin Russian network that has claimed several incidents of sabotage against Moscow since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, said the headquarters of the country's 70th motorized rifle regiment burnt down in a fire on Thursday.

The group, which describes itself as consisting of Russian activists, military members, and politicians who are "now fighters and partisans," wrote on Telegram that news of the incident was first reported by the Sorokin Hvost channel on the social media platform. According to Sorokin Hvost, all the documents inside the headquarters were obliterated in the fire, while cars parked nearby were also damaged.

Reports of the fire at the headquarters, located in the city of Shali in Chechnya, were shared on the social media platform by several accounts but were not confirmed by Russian authorities. The Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Chechen Republic is yet to issue an official statement on the incident.

Rospartizan has not claimed responsibility for the fire, the origin of which is still officially unknown. Newsweek has not verified the footage and has contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment by email on Friday.

Footage shared on Telegram shows the building being completely engulfed by the fire, as flames rise above the surrounding trees creating a black plume of smoke. The headquarters' walls appear entirely destroyed, with only the frames of the building still standing.

Igor Sushko, a Ukrainian-born professional race car driver now living in the U.S., shared footage of the fire on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing about suspicions that the incident was an act of sabotage.

"It appears Russian soldiers recently transferred to 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment in Shali, Russia-occupied Chechnya, burned down the base headquarters with all the paperwork," Shushko wrote on the social media platform.

It's not the first time that Russia's 70th motorized rifle regiment has made international headlines. At the end of 2022, soldiers of this regiment, who had been taking part in the invasion of Ukraine, refused to go on combat missions in the neighboring country.

The Anti-imperial Block of Nations (ABN), an organization created in 1943 by Ukrainian nationals advocating for the destruction of the Soviet Union, reported the incident on its website writing: "This regiment was the first to rebel against the Russian command, and even loudly declared its unwillingness to fight in Ukraine. Coincidence?"

Soldiers of Russia's 70th motorized rifle regiment are now reportedly fighting in the Zaporizhzhya region.

Some 22 months after the beginning of the Russian invasion, the war in Ukraine continues without either Kyiv or Moscow emerging as clear winners or losers.

On Thursday, the Institute of the Study of War (ISW) wrote that Russia's current troop generation efforts are allowing its forces to conduct routine operational-level rotations in Ukraine, giving them the chance to maintain "the overall tempo of their localized offensive operations in eastern Ukraine in the near term."

But the ISW isn't sure that Russia can keep up these efforts in the long term, especially if Ukraine launches significant counteroffensive operations.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has just returned from a trip to the Baltic countries earlier this week, where he pleaded for more air defenses from its allies to allow Kyiv to keep up its fight against Moscow forces.

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