Batukaev's award reminded of the dubious circumstances of his life and death.

The commander of one of the special forces battalions "Akhmat", former participant of the PMC "Wagner" Zelimkhan Batukaev has been posthumously declared a Hero of Russia. The medal was handed over to his mother in Grozny.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", on February 24, 2025, the commander of "Akhmat" Apti Alaudinov announced the death of Zelimkhan Batukaev with the call sign Shustry. Batukaev, who commanded one of the special forces battalions "Akhmat", died, according to Alaudinov, "while performing a combat mission" from a brain hemorrhage after three days without sleep. At the same time, opposition Chechen Telegram channels indicated that at the time of his death, Batukaev was on vacation in Chechnya. The Chechen branch of the "Defenders of the Fatherland" fund informed about his posthumous award on March 3, 2025.

Russian President Vladimir Putin posthumously awarded the commander of the special forces battalion "Akhmat" Zelimkhan Batukaev the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. The medal "Golden Star" of the Hero of Russia was ceremonially handed over to his mother in Grozny on October 28, as reported on his Telegram channel by Ramzan Kadyrov.

The award was handed over to Taus Batukaeva by the head of the Chechen government Magomed Daudov, who also read a welcoming address from Ramzan Kadyrov at the ceremony. The text emphasizes the combat merits of senior lieutenant Batukaev and creates the impression that he died directly in battle; his so-called "feat" is mentioned multiple times, although it is not specified what it consisted of.

Got to the front from prison

Zelimkhan Batukaev ended up in the combat zone as a mercenary for the PMC "Wagner" – he was recruited in a prison where he ended up in 2016. Batukaev was then sentenced to 19 years in a strict regime for robbery, murder, and intentional destruction and damage to someone else's property.

"Together with Avturkhan Khabibulaev and Artur Bersanukaev, he attacked a taxi driver who agreed to take them from Krasnodar to Kropotkin. Batukaev and Khabibulaev strangled the driver with a cord and their hands, while Bersanukaev stabbed him at least 13 times. The car of the murdered man was sold in Chechnya," notes the project "Agency"*.

Before the verdict in this case, in 2011, he was convicted for illegal arms trafficking. In the past, Zelimkhan Batukaev fought in Chechnya against Russian federal forces.

One of the Chechen opposition channels claimed that "Shustry" used drugs and the presumed cause of his death during his vacation in Chechnya was an overdose.

Chechen blogger and critic of the republic's authorities Tumso Abdurakhmanov* reminded on his channel after Batukaev's death that "Shustry" threatened to take the house from an activist of the Chechen opposition movement. A video with these threats in Chechen was published by Zelimkhan Batukaev on his Telegram channel on August 28, 2024.

* included in the Russian register of foreign agents.

** the activities of the Meta company (owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.