Chechnya’s Kadyrov shifts stance on POWs, touting efforts to bring home troops who surrendered in Ukraine
After years of maintaining that Chechen troops fighting for Russia against Ukraine do not and should not surrender, Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov has softened his stance on prisoners of war.
After Russia and Ukraine completed their first prisoner swap in months on February 5, he reported that 20 Chechen soldiers were included in the exchange. “Team Kadyrov has been working on the issue of their return for a long time,” the Chechen ruler wrote on Telegram. The post included a video of several soldiers dressed in camouflage, with Russian flags tied around their shoulders.
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Kadyrov went on to say that he discussed the issue of bringing home Chechen POWs with the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, during his official visit to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin in late January. “Overall, we are working to return captured servicemen on a constant and systematic basis,” Kadyrov wrote. The Chechen authorities “will continue to do everything possible to help bring Russian servicemen home, using every available mechanism,” he added.
The tone of Kadyrov’s messaging marks a shift away from his previous criticism of Chechen soldiers taken captive by Ukraine. In a February 2023 interview with the government-run news agency Grozny Inform, Kadyrov insisted that “Chechens don’t surrender.” A few months later, in April, Kadyrov announced that he was refusing to meet with five Chechen POWs who had been released from Ukrainian captivity.
“I believe a Chechen warrior should have no reason to be taken prisoner,” Kadyrov said. He then urged former prisoners to prove they had no other choice but to surrender by returning to the front lines.
The February 5 exchange included 314 prisoners (157 from each side). According to Ukrainian media reports, 150 soldiers and seven civilians were among those released from Russian captivity. According to the Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo, the returned Chechen soldiers were members of the Akhmat special forces unit captured during Ukraine’s 2024 incursion in Russia’s Kursk region. As Agentstvo notes, Chechen POWs interviewed while in Ukrainian custody have said they were abandoned by their officers and surrendered “without a fight.”
In a September 2024 interview with Ukrainian YouTuber Volodymyr Zolkin, a Chechen prisoner named Zaur Chaarov recounted how his commanding officers “immediately ran away into the forest” after Ukrainian forces launched their attack. In another interview recorded by Ukrainian photojournalist Yan Dobronosov, a Chechen POW named Magomed Zarakhmatov recalled being taken captive in the village of Sverdlikovo on August 14 — less than a week after Ukraine began its offensive. “They drove up and surrounded us. We surrendered voluntarily and didn’t resist. What for?” Zarakhmatov said.
Against the backdrop of ongoing fighting in Kursk in September 2024, the Akhmat unit’s commander, Apti Alaudinov, said that Chechnya wouldn’t seek the return of Chechen soldiers who “surrendered voluntarily.” However, Agentstvo reported just one month later that at least one Chechen soldier had been included in a prisoner swap.
Footage of the POW, Akraman Maskhabov, went viral in October 2024 after he was captured while wearing what appeared to be a Stefano Ricci hoodie. Ukrainian media reported that this luxury sweater retails for more than $2,000, though journalists acknowledged that it may have been a knock-off.
