Russian President Vladimir Putin made an unscheduled trip to Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic within the Russian Federation, his first visit in nearly 13 years, as Ukraine’s stunning cross-border incursion into western Russia entered its third week.
Putin was greeted by Chechnya’s self-styled strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov, before visiting a special forces academy bearing his name and speaking with volunteer fighters who trained there before being deployed in Ukraine.
Putin praised the volunteers and said that as long as Russia has men like them, it will be “invincible,” according to reports by Russian state agencies.
Kadyrov said in a post on his official Telegram channels that more than 47,000 fighters, including volunteers, have trained at the facility since Moscow began what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Fighters from Chechnya, whose bid for independence after the Soviet Union’s collapse led to years of war with Russian government forces, are participating on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine.
The Kremlin nor Kadyrov shared any details about the purpose and timing of Putin’s unexpected visit, with Kadyrov saying only that “a busy schedule” awaited the Russian leader.
Putin later held talks with Kadyrov at the Chechen leader’s residence in Grozny.
Before his surprise visit to Chechnya, Putin was earlier on Tuesday in Beslan, a town in the Caucasus province of North Ossetia, where he had his first meeting in nearly two decades with mothers of children killed in the 2004 school attack by Islamic militants that left more than 330 dead.
At the meeting, he slammed Kyiv’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, accusing the Ukrainians of “trying to destabilize” the country.
“We will punish the criminals. There can be no doubt about that,” he said.
