The 249th Separate Special Motorized Battalion "South" is a military formation within the 46th Separate Operational Purpose Brigade of the

Russian National Guard The Federal Service of Troops of National Guard of the Russian Federation (), officially known as the (),Official website is a federal executive body which is responsible for law enforcement, internal security, counter-terrorism and riot contr ...

, stationed in the

Vedensky District Vedensky District (; , ''Vedanan khoşt'') is an administrativeDecree #500 and municipalLaw #14-RZ district (raion), one of the fifteen in the Chechen Republic, Russia. It is located in the southeast of the republic. The area of the district is . ...

of the

Chechen Republic Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and share ...

. It is considered one of the elite units in the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It was formed on May 29, 2006, during the

Second Chechen War Names The Second Chechen War is also known as the Second Chechen Campaign () or the Second Russian Invasion of Chechnya from the Chechens, Chechen insurgents' point of view.Федеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 19 ...

, and since then has taken an active part in conducting more than 6,960 different counter-terrorist operations in the

North Caucasus Federal District The North Caucasian Federal District ( rus, Северо-Кавказский федеральный округ, p=ˌsʲevʲɪrə kɐfˈkasːkʲɪj fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnɨj ˈokrʊk) is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. It is located ...

. On April 27, 2007, in the

Shatoi Shatoy (; ) is a rural locality (a '' selo'') and the administrative center of Shatoysky District of the Chechen Republic, Russia. Population: Geography It is located in the southern part of the republic, on the right bank of the Argun Rive ...

region, a

Mi-8 The Mil Mi-8 (, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. Russian production of t ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

crashed, carrying 3 crew members and 15 battalion fighters. All on board were killed. There are three versions of the crash: technical malfunction, pilot error, and militant shelling.

Combat use

Since early February 2022, it has been taking part in

Russia's invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Commanders

* Muslim Ilyasov * Anzor Magomadov * Khusein Mezhidov (2019 - 2022) * Saidi Lorsankaev (2022 - present)

References

{{Russia-mil-stub National Guard of Russia Military units and formations of the Russian invasion of Ukraine