Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, brutal fighters are being killed in Ukraine ‘every day’

Chechen troops in Ukraine loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov have claimed a reputation for being the most brutal of Putin’s war, but a new report says they are indeed suffering massive losses and will take a long time to cover. cover.

According to an investigation by the independent Russian news agency iStories, the official figure of 13 Chechen soldiers killed in Ukraine is an unofficial figure; A source in the Chechen Health Ministry said that the actual death toll of the so-called Kadyrovtsy at least coincided with the number of Dagestani troops killed in Ukraine, totaling 123.

A source involved in returning the bodies of Chechen fighters told iStories that Chechen battalions are suffering injuries and deaths every day.

One would never know that when one looks at the social media chronicles of Kadyrov, who sought to portray the Chechens as both fearsome warriors and benevolent rescuers, with the images and videos shared to Telegram and the VK social media site often appear blatantly staged, showing troops being greeted with open arms by elderly villagers and firing weapons at targets invisible.

Kadyrov’s military has also been accused of some of the most heinous war crimes during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with many survivors of the Bucha massacre identifying soldiers who indiscriminately murdered and tortured civilians are members of Chechen battalions.

But Kadyrov’s PR campaigns have sometimes backfired spectacularly, such as when the powerful leader appeared in a video in mid-March with the aim of being briefly introduced by his men in a floor plan. vault in the Kyiv region, only for Ukrainian journalists to use phone data to prove that he is indeed in Belarus, followed by even the Kremlin and a source in the Chechen government confirming that he not really in Kyiv. Or the now infamous photo of Kadyrov kneeling to pray with militants in Ukraine – in front of a gas station owned by a company that is not present in the country.

Ukraine’s Security Service said at the time that “clown and coward” Kadyrov was just trying to scare the Ukrainian military by suggesting that he came to join the war.

Behind the scenes, Kadyrov’s image campaign is said to have covered up his own dysfunction, such as when he allegedly threw something nasty about Russia’s decision to withdraw from Kyiv. In mid-March, when the Russian Defense Ministry decided to withdraw troops from the region after an unsuccessful attempt to capture the capital, Kadyrov lashed out, saying his men were too prestigious to move to Mariupol, according to iStories. . He is said to have headbutted both the heads of the Defense Ministry and the Russian National Guard, antagonizing them by ordering his men to return to Chechnya to “rest up,” sources say. with news agency.

And in his latest attempt to flaunt Chechen military might on social media, Kadyrov this week proudly announced that his men have “liberated” the village of Svetlichnoye in the Luhansk region – a village already under the control of Russian proxies in Luhansk People’s Republic since 2014.