Author: Arsen Araqelov

After the start of Russia's full-scale military aggression in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, representatives of the occupied regions of Georgia are also fighting on the Russian side. Fighters from Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region participate in the war, both as servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces and as volunteers. Most of them have been involved in military operations since the beginning of the war, and some have been fighting in Ukraine since 2014.

Who Fights in Which Unit?

Fighters from Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region are enlisted in different units. The following military groups can be distinguished:

• Piatnashka: ethnically Abkhaz fighters mainly make up the so-called Piatnashka international brigade. The Piatnashka brigade is an illegal armed formation which has been under the 100th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the 1st Army Corps of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. The activity of the brigade is often observed in the Donetsk region, near Avdiivka. The Commander of the unit is an ethnically Abkhaz, Akhra Avidzba, nicknamed Abkhaz.
• Storm Ossetia and Alania: the largest number of ethnic Ossetians are enlisted in these two formations whose activity is often observed in temporarily occupied parts of the Zaporizhzhia region. The battalions include ethnically Ossetian volunteers from both, North Ossetia and the Tskhinvali region.
• Russian Armed Forces: a number of ethnically Ossetian and Abkhaz fighters are fighting in Ukraine under the Russian Armed Forces, and some of them have been involved in hostilities as servicemen of the 4th and 7th Russian military bases stationed in the occupied regions.
• Wagner: a small number of volunteers are members of the private military company Wagner. At this stage, only the death of two Wagner mercenaries, who were from the occupied regions, was reported.
• Armed Forces of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics: Abkhaz and Ossetian volunteers also join the Armed Forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. Some of them are close persons to de facto leaders of the so-called People's Republics.

Some of the fighters who died and are involved in the ongoing hostilities participated in the 2008 Russian-Georgian war. Some of them took part in the armed conflicts developed on the territory of Georgia in the 90s and have received awards for this.

Number of Dead

The exact number of fighters who left the occupied regions for Ukraine is unknown. On October 15, 2023, the former de facto president of the Tskhinvali region, Anatoly Bibilov, said that more than 1,100 volunteers from the region participated in Russia's aggression in Ukraine. Despite this statement, no other corroborating information is available about the number of fighters involved. Considering the population of the occupied Tskhinvali region (according to the 2019 census published by the de facto government, approximately 57 thousand people live in the Tskhinvali region, although real number of residents of the region is much less), these data may be exaggerated. As per reports in the Ossetian media, including Telegram channels, 27 fighters from the Tskhinvali region were killed in the war.

The first killed fighter from the Tskhinvali region is Andrei Bakaev. Sergeant Bakaev served in the 58th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation and died on March 5, 2022 in the city of Huliaipole, Zaporizhzhia region.

In the case of Abkhazia, the number of fighters is unknown, although according to various reports, about 100 militants are fighting in Ukraine, and their number is even growing. According to the Commander of Piatnashka, Akhra Avidzba, 60 Abkhaz fighters are regularly enlisted in the international battalion. As for the number of dead, according to the October 23, 2023 statement of the de facto Minister of Emergency Situations, Lev Kvitsinia, the remains of ten fighters were transferred from Ukraine to Abkhazia.

The first killed fighter from Abkhazia is Akhra Kirkinadze, who fought in the international volunteer unit - Piatnashka. According to various reports, he died in Donbas on March 31, 2022 as a result of a mine explosion.

Regardless of the information disseminated by de facto governments or the “official” Abkhaz and Ossetian media, as reported in open sources, the number of fighters from the occupied regions killed since February 24, 2022, is higher: in total, 38 militants from the Tskhinvali region, and 16 - from Abkhazia were killed (data as of November 3, 2023). Most of them were born in the occupied regions, only a few of them later settled in Abkhazia or the Tskhinvali region. The list also includes those persons who lived in Russia and were subsequently buried on the territory of Russia, although most of them were from the occupied regions.

There are often cases when it is difficult to determine the whereabouts of militants and there is no information about them. This is supported by media reports on how relatives of militants are seeking and/or requesting assistance from relevant agencies in locating the missing fighters. As a rule, in such cases, the combatant was killed in an armed confrontation and it is impossible to move them from the place of death or to establish their identity. There are cases when the identity of the deceased is determined by Russian medical institutions weeks or months after the death of the fighter, through DNA analysis. Given this factor, it can assumed that the death toll is even more higher than reported.

Interactive Map

The interactive map created within the framework of the Rondeli Foundation’s project – Roadmap to Kremlin's Policy in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali Rregion, presents those fighters who died during Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine. The map is self-updating and interested persons can regularly monitor occupied regions’ involvement in the hostilities. The map contains information about all the fighters who are connected to Abkhazia or the Tskhinvali region. The combat units correspond to the color legend of the map.

Please click on the link to see the map.