Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen Republic, offered on Sunday to send military forces from his country to help Russian President Vladimir Putin ward off attacks in the Belgorod region.
Belgorod has been the site of numerous attacks in recent weeks. The region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, and other Russian officials have blamed the attacks on Ukraine, but Kyiv has denied responsibility while two anti-Putin paramilitary groups—the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom for Russia Legion—have claimed credit for them.
Though Belgorod has experienced brief conflicts since Putin ordered his invasion of Ukraine more than 15 months ago, the recent skirmishes in the area have been characterized as some of the largest inside Russian territory during the war. On Monday, Gladkov reported that at least 10 villages in Belgorod experienced heavy shelling in a new attack.
Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel late Sunday night that "the terrorists who invaded the Belgorod region could be dealt with by Chechen units."
The Chechen leader, a longtime ally of Putin, touted his troops as being very capable of handling such incursions and claimed they were able to "liberate" Ukrainian settlements such as Mariupol despite being outnumbered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's forces.
Kadyrov said that he had 70,000 Chechen troops ready to fight for Putin, which he noted were trained at the Russian University of Special Forces, a special forces training center in Chechnya.
"The supreme commander-in-chief [Putin], of course, knows best...It would be a good decision," Kadyrov said of the prospect of sending Chechen fighters to Belgorod. "We are ready and waiting for the order!"
Kadyrov's forces have increasingly become more active in Ukraine. Last week, the Institute for the Study of War think tank wrote Russia's military officials had seemingly ordered Chechen fighters to go on the attack in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. This reported order followed Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin saying he was withdrawing his mercenaries from the city of Bakhmut after months of intense fighting.
"Putin may have coerced Kadyrov into assuming an offensive role in the war to compensate for Wagner's likely culmination," the ISW said in its May 31 assessment of the situation in Bakhmut.
The ISW added that Kadyrov had previously said he had around 7,000 fighters in Ukraine. The tank tank also questioned the effectiveness of these troops.
"The Kremlin may perceive Chechen units as an untapped assault force that can restore Russia's ability to sustain simultaneous offensive efforts on multiple axes of advance," the ISW said. "If Kadyrov's claims that he has 7,000 troops in Ukraine are close to accurate his forces will not be able to mount multiple significant offensive operations successfully."
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jon Jackson is an Associate Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more
