Chechnya Governor Ramzan Kadyrov said late Sunday night that “the terrorists who invaded the Belgorod region could be dealt with by Chechen units.”
“In order to eliminate the militia group on Russian territory without harming the civilian population or infrastructure, special knowledge and training are required. We need not just military experience but also anti-terrorist experience,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram, adding that Chechen forces have just the experience necessary.
“The supreme commander-in-chief, of course, knows best,” he noted, emphasizing that Chechnya’s forces are ready to deploy in the Belgorod region if such an order comes. “It would be a good decision,” he added.
Two pro-Ukrainian militia groups that purportedly consist of Russian fighters, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russian Legion, have repeatedly taken credit for armed cross-border incursions into the Belgorod region in recent months. The Russian Defense Ministry has referred to the groups conducting the raids as “Ukrainian terrorists” and “saboteurs.”
On June 4, the two militias announced a new raid, during which they entered the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka in the Belgorod region’s Shebekinsky District and proposed that Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov meet with them. In a video released online, a Russian Volunteer Corps commander said the group had taken two prisoners and offered to release them “as a gesture of good will” if Gladkov agreed to a meeting. The governor later responded that he would be willing to meet with them at the Shebekino border crossing point, but no meeting ultimately took place.
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