Kadyrov Troops Hurt as Drones Strike Military Barracks Deep Inside Russia

Four people have been injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on the Chechen capital of Grozny overnight, according to the Russian republic’s leader, who said more than 80,000 fighters were “ready to move to the front line” against Kyiv after the latest reported hit on the southwestern Russian region.

A drone was “shot down” over police barracks shortly before 1 a.m. local time in Grozny, Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, said in a post to messaging app Telegram on Thursday.

Four guards “received minor injuries” when the drone detonated mid-air, damaging the roof of the building and knocking out windows, Kadyrov said, adding: “The fallen fragments caused a small fire, which was quickly extinguished.”

Russia’s defense ministry said it had intercepted 16 Ukrainian drones, including one over Chechnya and three over North Ossetia-Alania, which borders Chechnya to the west.

Ukraine’s military has not publicly commented, but Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Russia had suffered a “blow of humiliation,” and reposted footage widely shared online purporting to show the drone exploding in Chechyna. Newsweek could not independently verify the footage.

Kyiv’s armed forces have been contacted for comment via email.

Soldiers from the North Caucasus republic have been present in Ukraine since the early days of the conflict.

Experts suggested that Chechen fighters were originally used as a cleansing force or military police, somewhat removed from the front lines, before becoming more widely used as a conventional fighting force.

Kadyrov, who has led Chechnya since 2007, is seen as both loyal to and dependent on Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has been a vocal supporter of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, and his father, Akhmat Kadyrov, was the Chechen president until he was assassinated in 2004.

The republic has a complicated and bloody history with Moscow. Previously part of the Soviet Union, Chechnya asserted its independence from Moscow as the bloc disintegrated. During the second Chechen war in the 1990s, Russia, now under Putin’s control, regained its dominance over the separatist republic.

On December 4, Kadyrov said an unspecified number of civilians were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a special police regiment in the center of Grozny.

In late October, Kadyrov said a drone had crashed over the Russian University of Special Forces in the town of Gudermes, just east of Grozny, setting fire to the roof of an empty building.

Kadyrov said on Thursday that Kyiv’s alleged drone strikes “only strengthen our faith in victory and the desire to quickly deal with the enemy.”

Around 84,000 Chechen “volunteers and fighters” are “ready to move to the front line at the first order,” Kadyrov said.