Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya and bloodthirsty stalwart of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has surfaced in Ukraine fighting alongside invading Russian forces.
Kadyrov announced his presence in a Telegram video of himself in uniform and reviewing plans with soldiers. He said the video was from Hostomel, an airfield near Kyiv captured by Russia early in the invasion, which is now into its third week.
“The other day we were about 20 km from you Kyiv Nazis and now we are even closer,” Kadyrov wrote. “We will show you that Russian practice teaches warfare better than foreign theory and the recommendations of military advisers.”
FULL COVERAGE OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE FROM WASHINGTON EXAMINER
A ruthless warlord who is blacklisted by Western nations and refers to himself as “Putin’s foot soldier,” Kadyrov, 45, has ruled Chechnya for 15 years. In return for his loyalty, Putin has given him wide latitude and generous subsidies in ruling the majority-Muslim region about 1,000 miles southeast of Ukraine. The invasion of Ukraine has given him a big opportunity to prove his value and loyalty to his Moscow patron, and he vowed two weeks ago to bring an army of militants to Ukraine in service of Putin. Social media video at the time showed his Muslim paramilitary fighters rallying in the Chechen capital of Grozny.
“The time has come to make a concrete decision and start a large-scale operation in all directions and territories of Ukraine,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram on Feb. 27. “I myself have repeatedly developed tactics and strategies against terrorists, participated in battles. In my understanding, the tactics chosen in Ukraine are too slow. It lasts a long time and, in my view, are not effective.”
Kadyrov took over the Chechen presidency in 2007, three years after his father, former Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, was assassinated. The elder Kadyrov had rebelled against Russia during the First Chechen War in 1994 during former Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s administration, but he switched sides to Russia during the Second Chechen War.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Two weeks ago, Ukraine‘s controversial Azov fighters posted video of themselves dipping bullets in pig fat to shoot at Chechen Muslims set to invade their country on behalf of Russia. The Azov fighters are linked to a neo-Nazi volunteer militia that became part of the Ukrainian National Guard in 2014 after Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula and moved into the Donbas region. In the clip, they smear the bullets with pig fat, which would be considered unclean to the Chechen fighters.
