How Is the "Kadyrov Army" Structured? A Major Investigation by Novaya Gazeta Europe

How Is the "Kadyrov Army" Structured? A Major Investigation by Novaya Gazeta Europe

At the end of April, during a meeting with Vladimir Putin, Chechnya’s head Ramzan Kadyrov cited figures that, according to him, show Chechnya’s major contribution to the war in Ukraine.

According to him, over 4.5 years, "more than 70,000 fighters, 2,830 units of special equipment, 291 armored vehicles, about 18,000 quadcopters, 113,000 equipment kits, anti-drones, night-vision devices" were sent to the front.

However, back in 2022, after the failure of the operation near Kyiv, elite Chechen units were withdrawn from Ukraine. Contract soldiers and prisoners took their place.

Journalists from Novaya-Europe spoke with former and current security personnel, contract soldiers, and volunteers who took part in the war, as well as with the families of Chechnya residents killed in it, in order to reconstruct the history of the "Kadyrov army."

When and why did Kadyrov stop believing in Putin’s military luck, what connection do Chechen units have to the attempted forced removal of Ukrainian children to Russia. And how did the head of Chechnya save his elite units from the war?

Read about it in Novaya Gazeta Europe’s large-scale investigation (with VPN): (or via the mirror)

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