Putin inspects troops with Kadyrov on first Chechnya visit since 2011
Al Jazeera
The Russian president heaps praise on Chechen fighters due to head to Ukraine to support the full-scale invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov have inspected Chechen troops and volunteers preparing to fight in Ukraine in Putin’s first visit to the North Caucasus region since 2011.
The surprise trip comes as Moscow fights to push Ukrainian forces out of its Kursk region two weeks after they crossed the border in the largest invasion of Russia since World War II.
“As long as we have men like you, we are absolutely, absolutely invincible,” Putin told soldiers at the Russian Special Forces University, a training school in Chechnya’s Gudermes, according to a transcript on the Kremlin’s website.
“It is one thing to shoot at a shooting range here, and another thing to put your life and health at risk. But you have an inner need to defend the Fatherland and the courage to make such a decision.”
Kyiv’s incursion across its northern border has been an embarrassment for Putin and his army, even as Russian forces continue their steady advances on the front line in eastern Ukraine.
