Russia’s head of Chechnya republic says forces will ‘take Kyiv’ – National
Ramzan Kadyrov, the highly effective head of Russia‘s republic of Chechnya, mentioned early on Monday that there can be an offensive by Russian forces not solely on the besieged port of Mariupol, but additionally on Kyiv and different Ukrainian cities.
“There can be an offensive … not solely on Mariupol, but additionally on different locations, cities and villages,” Kadyrov mentioned in a video posted on his Telegram channel.
“Luhansk and Donetsk – we’ll totally liberate within the first place … after which take Kyiv and all different cities.”
Kadyrov, who has usually described himself as Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s “foot soldier,” mentioned there needs to be little doubt about Kyiv.
“I guarantee you: not one step can be taken again,” Kadyrov mentioned.
Kadyrov has been repeatedly accused by the USA and European Union of rights abuses, which he denies.
Moscow fought two wars with separatists in Chechnya, a primarily Muslim area in southern Russia, after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless it has since poured enormous sums of cash into the area to rebuild it and given Kadyrov a big measure of autonomy.
The Kremlin describes its actions in Ukraine as a “particular operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” its neighbor and on Sunday Russia intensified its assaults in japanese Ukraine.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Ronald Popeski in Winnipeg; Writing by Lidia Kelly;Enhancing by Christopher Cushing and Stephen Coates)
