Reuters
For Kadyrov, who has often described himself as President Vladimir Putin's "foot soldier" and who has at times been a vocal critic of Russia's performance in the conflict, the war in Ukraine is a bulwark against Western aggression. "They (the fighters) have the best equipment and modern weapons," Kadyrov said on the Telegram messaging app. In May, Kadyrov said that Chechnya, which is a federal republic of Russia, had sent more than 26,000 fighters to Ukraine from the start of the war, including 12,000 volunteers and that at the time 7,000 of them were actively fighting.