Chechen leader cancels ‘no prisoners’ order
The head of Russia’s Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov has announced that he hаs rescinded a directive to his commanders not to take any Ukrainian servicemen as prisoners on the battlefield.
Kadyrov initially issued the instruction earlier this week after Kiev conducted a drone strike on the Special Forces University (RUS) in the Chechen city of Gudermes, setting the roof of one of its buildings on fire.
In response, the Chechen leader vowed vengeance on those behind the attack and warned that they would face a retaliation they had “never dreamed of.” Shortly after the incident, Kadyrov said that he had ordered all commanders of Chechen units in Ukraine not to take enemy combatants prisoner and to “up their fighting [efforts] by another 100%.”
However, in a message on his official Telegram channel on Saturday, Kadyrov explained that he’d received “more than two thousand letters from Ukrainian residents” asking him to cancel the order.
“The explanation for the request in each application is the same: surrendering to Russian soldiers is the only way to stay alive for those who are sent to the trenches against their will,” Kadyrov wrote.
He added that he appreciated the fact that those who write the letters understand Ukrainians are “victims of Western cowardice and meanness, and they are being sent to the trenches by European and US politicians while the country’s leadership is corrupt puppets and fascists.”
“I answer all the applicants here, in my official channel: the order given to [Chechen commanders] earlier ‘not to take prisoners’ has been canceled,” Kadyrov wrote, adding that “those who wish to surrender to Russian troops will live. I do not envy the rest.”
Last month, Major-General Apty Alaudinov, a commander of the Chechen Special Forces, had reported that many members of ‘elite’ Ukrainian units that had invaded Russia’s Kursk Region in August have been laying down their arms in order to stay alive.
The commander rejected claims made by Kiev that Russian soldiers had been executing Ukrainian service members, describing the allegations as “fake news” aimed at discouraging soldiers from surrendering to Moscow’s forces.
Alaudinov claimed that many Ukrainian servicemen “openly say they can fight no more” and that even the units that are considered to be Kiev’s “most unassailable and elite” have been slowly leaning towards surrendering.
The commander insisted that Russia is ready to spare even those who serve in Ukrainian neo-Nazi units, so long as they lay down their arms.
