Ramzan Kadyrov says Russia should target the local relatives of the ‘saboteurs’ responsible for Thursday’s incursion from Ukraine

Chechnya Governor Ramzan Kadyrov is calling on federal authorities to respond with “maximum severity” to the armed group that led a brief incursion from Ukraine into Russia’s Bryansk region on Thursday.

Specifically, Kadyrov advocates holding responsible any of the combatants’ relatives who might live in Russia (this form of collective punishment is common inside Chechnya). He argues that any family members likely aided in the attack. Kadyrov also urges Moscow to “bomb all points [in Ukraine] that have any direct or indirect connection to this attack.” Finally, acknowledging the inconvenience it would mean for residents, Kadyrov says Thursday’s events make it necessary to declare martial law in “multiple regions of Russia.”

On Thursday, March 2, armed men crossed from Ukraine into the Klimovsky district of Russia’s Bryansk region. They reportedly shot at a civilian vehicle, killing two people and injuring an 11-year-old child. Federal agents say the attackers planted bombs throughout the town.

Members of the Russian Volunteer Corps (a unit comprising right-wing militants that claims to fight with Ukraine’s Armed Forces) later took responsibility for the incursion. The group says roughly 45 of its fighters entered Russian territory on Thursday, supposedly with the goal of fomenting a rebellion. The unit’s commander also insisted that his soldiers harmed no children.