Chechen leader makes Ukraine plea to Putin
If Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to put a quick end to the country’s military operation in Ukraine, he should give Chechen troops the go-ahead to seize the Eastern European nation’s major cities, the leader of Chechnya has claimed.
In a statement on Friday, Ramzan Kadyrov asked for Chechen soldiers to be given the green light to capture towns across the former Soviet republic.
“Give an order to our fighters to seize Kharkov, Kiev, and all the other cities quickly, accurately, and efficiently,” he insisted.
“Comrade President, Comrade Supreme Commander, I have said more than once that I am your infantryman, I am ready to give my life for you,” Kadyrov insisted. “But I cannot watch how our fighters are dying. I beg you turn a blind eye to everything and let them finish in a day or two what is happening there.”
According to Kadyrov, “only this will save our state and people.”
“I ask you to give our fighters the opportunity to prove themselves to the fullest, to give them the opportunity to use all their possible and impossible force in order to finish this once and for all,” he pleaded.
In response to Kadyrov’s request, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was considering all options when it came to Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
“It is not my competence to comment on questions of military art. The Commander-in-Chief receives information, including about such proposals. And it is up to him to decide how to conduct the special operation,” he said.
Kadyrov had previously declared that Chechnya was willing to send volunteers from the region to the most dangerous combat zones of Ukraine to fight shoulder to shoulder with the Russian Army. According to the head of the republic, there are currently 12,000 Chechen troops in the Eastern European country.
Putin ordered the incursion into Ukraine on February 24. According to the Kremlin, the goal of the intervention is “to protect the people [of Donbass] who have been tortured for eight years by the Ukrainian regime.” It came after requests from the leaders of the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics for assistance in combatting what they claimed was an uptick in “aggression” from Kiev’s armed forces.
