Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has reportedly traveled to Ukraine, where members of his feared militia force are believed to be fighting alongside regular Russian forces.
The TV channel controlled by Kadryov’s administration in Chechnya posted a video to the Telegram messaging app on March 13 saying Kadyrov was in Ukraine, though it did not give his exact whereabouts or say when the video was taken.
There was no immediate independent confirmation of the claim. Kadyrov himself has not yet confirmed on his personal social media accounts that he is in Ukraine. However, it is known that units of the Chechen National Guard were sent to the country.
In the video, Kadyrov is shown meeting with soldiers as they describe their actions. A flag with the image of Kadyrov’s father, Akhmad, can be seen in the background.
Kadyrov speaks only briefly in the video, as a soldier explains how a unit took control of an orphanage 7 kilometers from Kyiv.
“The strategy that you suggested to us turned out to be 100 percent correct,” the soldier says.
The video is captioned: "Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov together with fighters participating in a special military operation in Ukraine."
The presence of Chechen fighters in Ukraine has been widely reported, with videos and photographs documenting their presence.
Some videos have been taken by Chechen units as they either prepared to depart for Ukraine, or as they were moving within Ukraine, and reposted to Kadyrov’s personal Telegram channel.
Chechen paramilitary units are widely considered to be a formidable fighting force, having been deployed, ostensibly with government authorization, to eastern Ukraine in the past, as well as to places like Syria.
For his part, Kadyrov runs Chechnya as his own fiefdom, having been authorized by Russian officials to take control of the region in the late 2000s after his father was assassinated in a bomb blast.
Large-scale fighting in Chechnya ended years ago, and the capital, Grozny, which was devastated by Russian forces in the 2000s, has been rebuilt, with gleaming skyscrapers and landscaped boulevards.
But Kadyrov’s forces have been linked to widespread rights abuses, kidnappings, and collective punishment. Kadyrov has also overseen a brutal purge that has targeted gay men.