Vladimir Putin has paid his first visit to Chechnya in 13 years to visit military volunteers – who he hailed for making Russia “invincible”.
Mr Putin’s visit came against the backdrop of Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, which shows no signs of abating.
But elsewhere in the war – which started after Mr Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – Russia is making gains.
Ukraine war latest: Russia takes ‘strategically important’ town
The Kremlin leader started his unscheduled visit to the Muslim-majority republic of the Russian Federation by saluting Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.
Mr Putin then visited a special forces academy bearing his own name and spoke to volunteer fighters who train there before being sent to Ukraine.
The 71-year-old praised the volunteers and said as long as Russia had men like them, it would be “invincible,” according to reports by Russian state agencies.
Mr Kadyrov said in a post on his official Telegram channels that more than 47,000 fighters, including volunteers, have trained at the facility since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.
The visit came a day after billionaire Elon Musk denied gifting the Chechen warlord a cybertruck after Mr Kadyrov filmed himself riding the vehicle.
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Fighters from Chechnya, whose bid for independence after the Soviet Union’s collapse led to years of war with Russian government forces, are participating in both sides of the conflict in Ukraine.
Pro-Kyiv volunteers loyal to Dzhokhar Dudayev, the late Chechen pro-independence leader, are the sworn enemies of Chechen forces who back Mr Putin and Mr Kadyrov.
The latter joined Russia in the months-long siege of Ukraine’s key port of Mariupol and other flashpoints in the country’s south and east.
Mr Putin’s visit comes at a critical time for Russian forces as they grapple with the largest invasion of Russia since the Second World War following Ukraine’s shock incursion into Kursk three weeks ago.
Ukraine has been gaining territory and has put Mr Putin “in a position he never dreamt of in his worst nightmares”, experts told Sky News yesterday.
But Russia has also been dealing some blows to Ukraine as it claimed on Tuesday that it had taken the town of Niu-York in Donetsk.