‘Deadly’ Chechen forces helping Russian troops in Ukraine

The presence of Chechen fighters in Ukraine has been widely reported, with videos and photographs documenting their presence.

24x7liveindia
Mar 23, 2022 06:36
0 213
‘Deadly’ Chechen forces helping Russian troops in Ukraine

Moscow: Around 10,000 Chechens soldiers have been dispatched to Ukraine to reinforce the Russian army.

Russian state television is weaponizing "the notion that Chechens are particularly aggressive and cruel,"

The Chechen fighters have scored gains, Ukrainian security forces have halted their attacks for the time being. Images circulated to pro-Ukrainian media have shown Chechen tanks with the telltale V blazing at the side of the road.

The overall help the Chechens will be able to provide to the Russian attack is unknown, and their emergence following the invasion surprised many analysts. However, experts claim that the Kremlin is only attempting to intimidate Ukrainian forces by using stereotypical pictures and tropes of Chechen fighters.

The psychological warfare fits in nicely with Russia's broader efforts to stop the invasion of Ukraine before it even started. However, it does not appear to be working very well. The speed with which the conflict in Ukraine has progressed implies that Russia anticipated far less resistance than it has encountered, a conclusion confirmed by Western intelligence

Meanwhile the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has 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 saying Kadyrov was in Ukraine, though it did not give his exact whereabouts or say when the video was taken.

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."

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.