Greater than six weeks after the Russian siege started, Ukrainian troops are proceeding to position up a staunch resistance in opposition to invading Russian forces amid the ruins of Mariupol, a strategic port town that Vladimir Putin has his eye on.
With Mariupol proving to be a holdout territory, Putin is augmenting the would possibly of the Russian army with the addition of Chechen combatants. Reputed to be fierce warriors, Chechen forces despatched to Ukraine are but to play a vital position. However that can quickly exchange, as India These days learnt all over a discuss with to a most sensible secret Chechen base camp.
Those Chechen combatants, or Kadyrovites, hailing from the Chechen Republic led via pro-Putin Ramzan Kadyrov, have taken over a lodge development at an undisclosed location in Russian-occupied Melitopol in south-eastern Ukraine.
READ | Mariupol mayhem: Why Putin is so determined to seize this Ukrainian port town
Commander Murad of the Chechen forces instructed India These days that their major motivation for coming to Ukraine used to be the “shared historical past” between Chechnya and Ukraine. The Chechens had suffered beneath a “terrorist regime”, and now any other one used to be in energy in Kyiv, he claimed.
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India These days’s @Geeta_Mohan stories from secret Chechen camp#RussiaUkraineWar #IndiaFirst | @gauravcsawant %.twitter.com/OUpvW4bpxI
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Murad used to be relating to Russia’s wars in Chechnya within the wake of the cave in of the Soviet Union. The Muslim-majority republic fought for its independence from Russia within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, however used to be engulfed in a decade-long bloody battle when then Russian top minister Vladimir Putin despatched troops in Chechnya after fatal bombings allegedly performed via Chechen secessionists. This in the long run culminated with the set up of Moscow-backed presidents within the restive province.
READ | Ukraine braces for fall of Mariupol to Russia
The Chechens have long past from preventing the Russians, to now preventing with the Russians. As Commander Murad stated, they take orders now not handiest from their chief Ramzan Kadyrov, but in addition from Putin. As though in testimony to this reality, their base camp on the Melitopol lodge has flags of the Chechen Republic and the Russian Federation putting aspect via aspect.
Chechen infantrymen at the name of the game base stated they skilled in a spot known as Hankala in Chechnya. They had been then despatched for additional coaching in Crimea, which used to be annexed via Russia in 2014, prior to getting into Ukraine. They’re armed to the tooth and feature company conviction of their chief, Ramzan Kadyrov.
As for what they intend to do in Ukraine, Ramzan Kadyrov has given a good indication. In a video posted on his Telegram channel on April 11, the Chechen president declared that Russian forces will release an offensive now not handiest at the besieged town of Mariupol, but in addition on Kyiv and different Ukrainian towns.