How ‘fearsome’ reputation of Putin’s Chechen fighters is being destroyed as they’re wiped out & take their kids to war
CHECHNYA’S fighters arrived in Ukraine with a fearsome reputation, but have faced bloody slaughter on the battlefield, reports claim.
Amid chaotic scenes, Chechen soldiers have been filmed firing wildly at houses, while many of warlord Ramzan Kadyrov‘s top officers have died since the start of the invasion.
Chechnya, a small, mountainous republic of Russia, was flattened by Russian forces during the two Chechen wars in the 1990s and 2000s.
Despite that, the Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov has positioned himself as Vladimir Putin‘s top footsoldier, sending thousands of his own personal fighters, the “Kadyrovtsy”, to fight the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
With rival warlords vying for power, a quick victory could have cemented Kadyrov’s position in the volatile region.
Instead, his kill squad has been wiped out on the battlefield, while their actions on social media have sparked ridicule.
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To add to the chaos, footage emerged last week appearing to show Chechen volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine against Russia.
The video, filmed in a village 18 miles northeast of Kyiv, was verified by CNN.
Last Wednesday, Kadyrov posted a video showing Chechen units engaged in street fighting against Ukrainian forces in the destroyed city of Mariupol.
Posting on his Telegram account, Kadyrov bosted that his commander – who was being interviewed by Russian media – had remained calm under fire.
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“During the interview, a tank shell flew into the five-storey building behind the back of the unsuspecting Timur Ibriev and exploded,” he wrote.
“A fragment hit one of the fighters but got stuck in a weapon belt. The camera captured the Olympian calm and restraint of my dear BROTHER Timur.
“He didn’t flinch, he didn’t duck. You are proud of such cold-blooded and brave fighters!”
Since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, Kadyrov has frequently taken to Telegram to brag about the apparent prowess of Chechnya’s soldiers fighting for Putin
He has also claimed to be in Ukraine, just outside Kyiv – although Ukrainian officials have cast doubt on this.
Kadyrov is accused of gross human rights violations in Chechnya and beyond, including medieval torture methods, and the persecution of gay people and political opponents.
He commands his own paramilitary force, the Kadyrovtsy, which have a fearsome reputation.
During the second Chechen war which began in 1999, a year before Putin took office, Kadyrov’s men became notorious for their brutality, killing a number of people as they helped Moscow take control of the region away from separatist forces.
It comes as…
- Ukrainian soldiers have recaptured one of the first towns to fall to Russian invaders.
- Dramatic Call Of Duty-style footage shows the moment a Ukrainian soldier obliterates a Russian tank using a guided missile.
- Murdered Putin rival Boris Nemtsov ‘was tailed’ by an agent linked to Kremlin hit squad as suspect lays siege to Mariupol.
- Up to 40,000 Ukrainians have been snatched from besieged cities and forced into Russian slave labour in a war crime.
- Chilling footage shows injured Russian soldiers looking terrified as they are awarded bravery medals for their role in Putin’s Ukraine invasion.
- Russia wants to split Ukraine in half like North and South Korea, the country’s military intelligence chief has warned.
- A blind mystic who is said to have predicted 9/11 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine claimed Putin will become “lord of the world”.
- Civilians in Kyiv have resorted to drinking sewage water as the city continues to be bombarded by horror Russian missile strikes.
Most of the Chechen Special Forces are Jihadist fighters, and an insider revealed each soldier had been given a deck of cards with photos of Ukrainian officials on their kill list.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that he and his family were the primary targets of the Chechen Squad.
Kadyrov has been described as “the son Putin never had,” such is his slavish devotion to the Russian president.
However, despite their reputation, on the battlefield, the Chechens have been anything but ruthless.
Just three days after the start of the war, top Chechen general Magomed Tushaev was killed in fighting outside Kyiv, as the Russian advance stalled.
Days later, footage was shared onTelegram of a destroyed Russian column in the western Kyiv suburb of Bucha, showing vehicles that reportedly belonged to Kadyrov’s men.
We will honourably carry out the order of our Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Russian President Vladimir Putin
Ramzan Kadyrov
On Monday, Chechen troops were mocked after a video appeared to show them staging a military operation for the cameras.
The brief clip posted on Twitter by the Eastern European news agency NEXTA purportedly includes Kadyrov’s fighters shooting at an already-abandoned building.
“In the video you can clearly hear the cameraman shouting ‘Come on, come on, let’s start, I’m shooting,’ and the Chechen soldiers, looking into the camera, run to shoot at the destroyed house,” it wrote alongside the video.
Chechnya’s leader has also shared footage of his troops firing wildly while shouting “Allah Akbar” after brutal fighting in the blitzed southern city of Mariupol, where at least 90 per cent of buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
Meanwhile, Kadyrov himself bizarrely took his rifle-toting 14-year-old son into war with him as he took his troops into the beleaguered city.
Adam, one of the warlord’s 12 children, was soon in footage of Kadyrov shot in Mariupol.
The leader said he wanted his boy “to learn first hand about the successes and needs of our comrades-in-arms”, and vowed to lead an invasion of Kyiv, despite the Russians reportedly abandoning their original strategy to take the capital.
In one sequence the child, dressed in military fatigues, is shown visiting his father’s injured commander Ruslan Geremeyev.
Geremeyev is suspected of involvement in the murder of Putin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down close to the Kremlin in 2015.
Adam earlier sparked controversy over his luxury watch collection, including a Richard Mille original reported to cost more than £263,000.
Kadyrov – who was this week promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General in the Russian national guard – claimed he had met and been briefed by Andrey Mordvichev, a senior Russian commander which Ukraine claimed to have killed earlier this month.
“I met with the commander of the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army, Lieutenant General of the Russian Armed Forces Andrey Mordvichev,” said Kadyrov.
“[Mordvichev] reported on the significant successes of the fighters in critical areas and mentioned the approximate dates for the capture of Mariupol by the Russian army.”
He went on: “A special military operation in Mariupol to cleanse the city of Bandera [Ukrainian nationalists], Nazis and rabid shaitans without family or tribe is proceeding in accordance with the developed plan.”
Kadyrov vowed to fully bring Mariupol to heel before seeking to grab the Ukrainian capital.
“We will honourably carry out the order of our Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Russian President Vladimir Putin,” he said.
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“He entrusted us with one of the most important and difficult areas, and we will justify his trust 100 per cent.
“Very soon we will complete the assigned tasks in Mariupol and report to the President of the Russian Federation on our readiness to take Kyiv.”
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