Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov has been posting reports that he has been leading an elite force of soldiers against Ukraine in Russia's war, drawing doubts from both Ukrainian officials and media outlets.
The reports have been suggested as an intimidation tactic, with The Wall Street Journal referring to Kadyrov as a "warlord."
Kadyrov has been posting to his 230,000 followers on the social media outlet Telegram for more than a week of his arrival in the area of Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, with a post on Thursday threatening to send 1,000 more of his troops into the war.
Chechen fighters have a notorious reputation from their two wars against Russia following the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, which resulted in the predominantly Islamic region becoming a Russian republic.
Kadyrov claimed he arrived in or near Kyiv on Sunday, including a video reportedly showing him receiving intelligence on the progress of his fighters.
"You can hear his fighters reporting to Kadyrov about the progress in the independent republics and other territories in Ukraine. From the conversation you can conclude that the head of the country is about 7 kilometers away from Kyiv," read the post.
Subsequent posts claimed that he was approaching Kyiv.
Reports early in the conflict indicated Chechen kill squads were given orders to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top officials.
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council also claimed in a televised report March 1 that the Chechens had been tasked with the assassination mission.
Despite Ukrainian media outlets disseminating the reports, Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovych appeared to dismiss many of the claims.
"We're checking the reports right now," Arestovych said. "Our sources report seeing Kadyrov in Grozny [capital of Chechnya] just yesterday, but one can easily get to Kyiv in that time frame. Anyway, his presence won't do anything, if it's confirmed, we'll eliminate him. If it's not confirmed, we'll eliminate him some other time."
Kadyrov himself claimed to be in Kyiv the following day on his official Telegram channel.
However, Ukraine's biggest publication, Pravda, as well as the country's Foreign Intelligence Service, cast doubt on the report.
The FIS said Kadyrov uses two mobile phones, the numbers of which have not appeared in the records of Ukraine's telecommunications towers in the last seven days.
The FIS also said it has used a phishing tactic to track Kadyrov.
Claiming to employ a publicly available service that allows the user to track IP addresses and phone numbers of an individual if a link is accessed, Pravda reporters texted Kadyrov, pretending to be from the Russian state media service RIA news. Kadyrov, they said, pressed the link, and the security services determined that he was in Grozny.
The 1,000 fighters Kadyrov had suggested he'd send were to be led by his close ally Apty Alaudinov. Despite his notorious reputation, Kadyrov recently admitted that he has lost some of his troops in Ukraine.
"The natives of Chechnya have seen two of their fighters die, six wounded," he said.
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