‘The special military operation turned into warfare long ago’ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov calls for Russia’s regions to declare mobilization individually
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said in a video posted Wednesday that Russia’s regional governments should announce mobilizations to help the Russian army with its “special [military] operation” in Ukraine. On his Telegram channel, he told his subscribers the following:
As far as the special operation, it turned into warfare long ago. If you asked me, I would declare martial law and use every opportunity to put an end to this scum [in Ukraine]. [...] We mustn’t wait for our country’s leadership to announce a mobilization; every region should contribute the forces and means that it has, the opportunities that it has. [They should] offer what they can to support our military today.
Kadyrov also claimed that Chechnya is ready to send 9,000 more troops (who he called “volunteers”) to Ukraine. He added that Chechen units will continue fighting in Ukraine even if Russia’s “special [military] operation” comes to an end.
I told all of my commanders who are in Ukraine, as well as all of the ones at home who are slated to go to Ukraine, that if the special [military] operation ends, our war against these devils will continue. We must destroy them. We didn’t start a war with them just to retreat or surrender. We’ll win even if we die — because we’ll be in heaven.
On Sunday, after Russian troops retreated from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the Chechen head said on Telegram that “mistakes were made.” In Wednesday’s message, he said that Ukraine had received more forces and resources than expected, and that Russia’s troops had “underperformed in some areas.” He noted that at the start of the war, Chechen units “took the Kherson and Kharkiv regions” and occupied Mariupol in the Donetsk region.