Head of the Chechnya Republic Ramzan Kadyrov thanked US President Biden for transferring weapons to Ukraine: “Chechen forces can confiscate and use them”.
After President Joe Biden announced on March 17 about a military aid package worth $800 million to Ukraine, the leader of the Russian Republic of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov called this is “good news, wonderful and encouraging news from Washington D.C.”.
Kadyrov said he was “not very impressed” with the US weapons seized in Ukraine before. “For a long time we thought about how to cheer our soldiers, but did not expect the Americans to help in this,” Kadyrov posted on Telegram.
The US $800 million additional security assistance for Ukraine includes 800 Stinger man-portable air defense missiles, 100 Switchblade armed drones, 9,000 anti-tank weapons, 7,000 infantry guns, 20 million bullets of all kinds, and 25,000 sets of bulletproof vests and combat helmets.
The leader of the Chechen Republic wrote that he wondered “will those weapons reach us soon?” when reading about the number of weapons the US will transfer to Ukraine.
Kadyrov said on the same day that his relative – Apty Alaudinov, is leading 1,000 volunteers “to Ukraine to participate in a special operation to de-fascist and demilitarize this country”.
It is not clear how many troops Kadyrov has sent to Ukraine. Financial Times reports about 10,000 Chechen fighters have been deployed.
The leader of the Republic of Chechnya on March 14 posted a video on Telegram showing him discussing a battle plan with other servicemen in a room. Kadyrov said the video was recorded in Hostomel, a town northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Kadyrov said his forces are “far from 20 kilometers of “the fascists in Kyiv“ and are approaching closer”, but did not specify. He called on Ukrainian soldiers to surrender, “otherwise you will be exterminated”.
Ramzan Kadyrov is the son of Akhmad Kadyrov, who was President of Chechnya until his assassination in a bombing in May 2004.
In February 2007, Ramzan Kadyrov was appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to lead the Republic of Chechnya.
Ramzan Kadyrov is considered a close ally of Putin, strongly supporting the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Kadyrov was put on a list of sanctions by the US and EU, which targeted many close associates of President Putin.
Russia launched a special military operation to “de-arm and de-fascist Ukraine” from February 24. After 24 days of the war, many Ukrainian cities were surrounded by Russian forces. The United Nations says more than 3.2 million people have fled Ukraine.
The US is one of the countries that has transferred weapons to Ukraine.
Unfortunately, Russian forces seized many anti-tank missiles from the US and the UK to transfer them to the Donbass separatist forces. As well as destroying many ammunition depots which contained Western weapons before the Ukrainian army can use them.
