Russian army officers with "Kadyrovites" have established arms smuggling through occupied Crimea, - Inform Napalm
The Russians are smuggling weapons from the combat zone to the temporarily occupied Crimea, which are then sold on the "black market" in regions of the Russian Federation, as well as in Europe, Western Asia and Africa. The Russian Federation's "shadow fleet" is also involved in this.
This is evidenced by data from an investigation by InformNapalm and the hacker group 256 Cyber Assault Division, reports Censor.NET.
What is known?
Thus, hackers cracked the accounts of Russian officers, including Major Yevgeny Dmitriev, commander of a platoon of the Russian assault company "Storm V" of the 291st Guards Motorised Rifle Regiment (42nd MRD, 58th Combined Arms Army), currently operating in the Zaporizhzhia direction.
The facts of cooperation between Russian officers and representatives of Kadyrov's "Vostok-Akhmat" battalion in the illegal sale of weapons were also exposed.
Details
According to the data received, there is a stable "work schedule" for specific shifts of the Rosgvardia at checkpoints on the R-280 highway in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of the temporarily occupied territories, in the Berdiansk – Melitopol – Chonhar – Simferopol, which either allow suspicious cargo to pass without inspection (a service for regular and trusted customers) or, for a fee, turn a blind eye to discrepancies between the documents and what is actually being transported.
These schemes are coordinated by officers of the 46th Separate Special Operations Brigade, which is 99% composed of representatives from Chechnya and Dagestan. Their main base is located in Askania Nova and nearby settlements in the Kherson region, but the command staff is also scattered in Ilinka, Novotroitsk, Chaplynka, and Kalanchak.
"Akhmat" and "Espanyol"
At a certain point, Kadyrovites faced competition on the illegal arms market from the Russian group "Espanyol," which consisted of football ultras and right-wing radicals.
In December 2025, the founder and leader of the group, Stanislav Orlov, nicknamed "The Spaniard," was shot dead at his dacha in the "Flotske" gardening community in Sevastopol. According to the main version, the reason was conflicts with other criminal groups and security forces over the use of logistics routes through occupied Crimea to transport weapons out of the combat zone.
Major Dmitriev
Major Yevgeny Dmitriev, who held the position of platoon commander of the "Storm V" assault company of the 291st Guards Motorised Rifle Regiment of the 42nd Motorised Rifle Division, 58th Combined Arms Army, which is conducting combat operations in the Zaporizhzhia direction was involved in the scheme of smuggling weapons in cooperation with Kadyrovites.
He ended up in the war against Ukraine after serving time in a strict regime colony, where the Vladikavkaz court sent him in August 2023 for selling large quantities of drugs.
The 291st Guards Motorised Rifle Regiment (MRR) of the Russian Armed Forces, which includes Dmitriev's assault company, is fighting mainly in the Zaporizhzhia direction – in the Orikhiv, Tokmak and Robotyne areas – as part of the 42nd Guards Motorised Rifle Division of the 58th Army of the "Dnepr" Group.
In 2023-2024, the regiment was one of the main units in the battles around Robotyne. Now, together with other units of the 58th Army, it continues combat operations in the Orikhiv direction.
The regiment's permanent base (military unit 43057) is located in Vladikavkaz, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, and its temporary base is in the village of Dunaivka, Pryazovskyi District, Zaporizhzhia Region.
Intercepted correspondence shows that the personnel repeatedly complained about the regiment's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Anton Robertovich Godin (born in 1987), as a corrupt and "cynical butcher" who does not care about losses.
As Dmitriev recounts in correspondence with a comrade, this is an example of a typical commander whose key traits are fear of responsibility to his superiors, shifting blame onto subordinates, and a desire to "close reports" at any cost.
How does the scheme work?
InformNapalm notes that among Russian officers commanding assault units on the front line, it is common practice to overstate the loss of automatic weapons during assaults, or even to send soldiers into battle without their standard-issue weapons.
Soldiers are usually told to "get weapons in battle. " The assault rifle that remains in position is written off according to the scheme. This is how they obtain additional weapons, which can later be sold.
"Another, no less typical option is the so-called "trophy" weapons or ammunition found in areas of active combat, which are simply not reported. Most often, this refers to the property of neighbouring units.
Recent interceptions by the Ukrainian Defence Forces in the area of responsibility of the Russian 291st Regiment also confirmed that sending troops into battle with minimal or no ammunition has long been the norm there," the article states.
As early as the summer of 2024, Dmitriev began to actively cooperate with Kadyrovites from the "Akhmat-Vostok" battalion.
"In addition to the financial component, Dmitriev was tempted by security guarantees, because thanks to corrupt connections, Kadyrovites always had the opportunity to warn each other and people in the scheme about sudden checks by counterintelligence, the FSB or the Investigative Committee, which regularly work in their area of responsibility and, under the guise of buyers, look for those willing to sell weapons.
Similarly, Kadyrovites and their accomplices from the Russian Armed Forces are not afraid of increased inspections of military transport at the administrative border of the temporarily occupied Kherson region and Crimea, because the 'green corridor' has been agreed in advance," the investigators said.
Kadyrovites
Dmitriev's main contact in arms sales is Nazib Rajabov from the "Vostok-Akhmat" battalion, which is also subordinate to the 291st regiment and is located in the same area near Orikhiv.
Investigators released an example of correspondence between Nazir and Major Dmitriev. Weapons from Dmitriev were collected either by Nazir himself or by his trusted associates, such as Ali "Nokhcho" Osmayev, commander of the "Vostok-Akhmat" reconnaissance platoon.
Over the course of the year, Major Dmitriev significantly improved his financial situation, buying expensive items and clothing.
Intense fighting in the area greatly facilitated schemes involving the write-off of weapons.
On 11 June 2024, Dmitriev received ten AK-12s with ammunition for his unit, and on 25 June 2024, he handed over three AK-12s and one trophy AK-74, leaving him with six "written off" assault rifles to sell. At the same time, he did not forget to share with the acting head of the RAW (rocket and artillery weapons) service, D. Timoshin, who received $200 for each "written off" assault rifle, and the warehouse manager, D. Rovensky, who received $50 for each weapon.
In May 2025, he was transferred from the assault company of the 291st Regiment (military unit 43057) first to military unit 41830, stationed in the village of Terpinnia, Melitopol District, Zaporizhzhia Region, and then he was assigned to report to the 121st Military Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia in Donetsk to perform the official duties of its head. As of now, this is his current job.
Law enforcement raids
Following reports from "concerned" citizens, on 12 December 2025, the FSB, police and Rosgvardiya conducted a raid, detaining 169 people from 53 regions of Russia involved in illegal arms trafficking. Among the items seized were machine guns, automatic weapons, grenade launchers, rifles, mines, about 220,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as significant amounts of TNT and gunpowder.
However, Dmitriev himself and his accomplices from "Vostok-Akhmat" have not yet been detained.
