One of the Russian army's top special forces units has been plagued by a rodent-borne illness which causes sufferers to bleed from their eyes.

Three soldiers from the Chechen Akhmat Battalion, known as the TikTok soldiers due to their staged combat videos shared on social media, have been reported to have fallen ill with the hantavirus disease.

The illness's most serious form, haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), begins with sufferers experiencing mild symptoms such as fever, headaches and back pain, with more extreme cases resulting in kidney damage and bleeding from the eyes.

Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have previously dubbed the disease "mouse fever".

Three soldiers from the Chechen Akhmat Battalion have been reported to have fallen ill with the hantavirus disease

The illness, which can have a mortality rate up to 38 per cent depending on the strain, can only spread through exposure to infected rodent droppings, urine and saliva.

A medic from the battalion told a Russian Telegram channel that their positions were teeming were rodents.

Using the callsign Shama, she wrote: “Mice are everywhere. We wake up because they run across us. We even wrestle over cans of condensed milk."

The medical described the rodents as “defenceless and touching animals”, before admitting “three of our men fell ill with mouse fever and would not agree with me".

The illness can only spread through exposure to infected rodent droppings, urine and saliva

The Akhmat Battalion are currently positioned in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia and it is unknown whether the disease has plagued more of the troops since the message was posted.

Airfinity, a health company which specialises in tracking infectious diseases, said in a briefing that the outbreak within the Russian unit “underscores the health risks posed by poor living conditions and uncontrolled rodent populations at the frontlines."

The firm added: “While only three cases are confirmed, limited medical access and movement among units mean more cases could be undetected, heightening potential for wider transmission and operational disruption."

However, other units in the ranks of Vladimir Putin's forces have succumbed to the disease throughout the war in Ukraine.

Other units in the ranks of Vladimir Putin's forces have succumbed to the disease throughout the war in Ukraine

In 2023, Ukrainian military intelligence claimed the disease was "mowing down" Russian forces in Kharkiv "en masse".

The Akhmat Battalion was founded in 2009 by then-Chechen leader Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov and has been fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine since the invasion began.

The special forces unit has been accused of a host of war crimes during its involvement in the conflict, including massacring and torturing Ukrainian civilians.

The battalion has also reportedly filled the gap left behind by Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group on the frontlines in Ukraine.

The hantavirus illness plaguing the unit does not have a cure - nor any specific treatment.

A strain of the disease found in the Americas, known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, was found to have a mortality rate of up to 50 per cent, according to a NASA Earthdata report in 2020.

The illness is also highly prevalent in Asia, with China reporting between 150,000 to 200,000 cases of HFRS each year.

An outbreak of one strain in the southwestern US caused 45 deaths between 1993 and 1995.