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Kadyrov claimed a video showed him ‘7 kilometers from Kyiv’ in the early days of the full-scale war. An investigation found it was actually filmed in a secret Chechen prison.

Source: Novaya Gazeta Europe

A video of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov meeting with Chechen commanders “near Kyiv” — circulated by Chechen media at the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine — was actually filmed in Chechnya, according to a major investigation by the independent Russian investigative outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe into how Kadyrov’s army operates.

The video was published by the local state TV channel ChGTRK Grozny on March 13, 2022, shortly after the full-scale Russian invasion. The channel claimed Kadyrov was personally present in the combat zone in Ukraine — specifically, that he had met with Chechen security forces just seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from Kyiv.

In the footage, camouflage-clad participants stand in a basement where a Chechen flag bearing a portrait of Akhmad Kadyrov hangs on one wall. Kadyrov listens to a report from Daniil Martynov, deputy commander of the Russian National Guard in Chechnya, describing how Chechen fighters, acting on Kadyrov’s orders, stormed an empty orphanage.

Near the end of the video, Kadyrov interrupts and, pointing at a map, asks: “Is it seven kilometers from here to Kyiv right now?” Martynov replies: “Yes, from the point where we were, seven kilometers remained to Kyiv.”

The video drew skepticism on both sides of the conflict. Oleksii Arestovych, then an adviser to President Zelensky, wrote: “If Kadyrov were really near Kyiv, the Ukrainian Armed Forces would destroy him.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin had no official information about a trip to Ukraine by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, adding: “Well, he didn’t directly claim, as far as I can tell, that he was there.”

Kadyrov, responding to Arestovych, wrote: “Why ‘if’? Didn’t you see the footage? Or do I need to knock on your door?” He did not publicly respond to Peskov.

A source at Novaya Gazeta Europe says Kadyrov’s meeting near Kyiv was a staged production by his PR team. The filming took place on March 12 in one of the rooms of the SOBR “Akhmat” secret prison in Grozny.

Some of the participants were brought to the staged “meeting” from an adjacent cell in the SOBR basement, the outlet reports. Among them, the journalists name battalion “Yug” commander Huseyn Mezhidov and regiment “Sever” commander Magomed Tushayev, who had ended up in the secret prison for smuggling trophy weapons they had taken out of Ukraine and concealed from Kadyrov.

Since the start of the full-scale war, Kadyrov, his associates, and the Chechen special forces unit “Akhmat” have aggressively promoted themselves across social media and pro-Kremlin outlets. Both Russian “war correspondents” and Z-channels have criticized them for it, as have Ukrainian media. The former contend that Kadyrov’s fighters routinely sit out real battles in the rear; the latter mockingly call the Chechen military “TikTok troops” for posting videos that resemble staged productions.

Novaya Gazeta Europe links the PR campaign to a conflict that erupted between Ramzan Kadyrov and the leadership of the Defense Ministry and the Russian National Guard at the start of the full-scale war — allegedly tied to the mass desertion of elite Chechen security forces in the first days of the full-scale invasion.