In a succession of “unimpressive” missions, VLADIMIR PUTIN “overestimated” the Chechen army.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechnya area and a close supporter of President Putin, claims to have dispatched 1,000 elite fighters to Ukraine to fight. The Chechen leader has been accused of human rights violations, including torture, and proudly publishes footage on Telegram of his forces fighting in Ukraine. Despite their frightening reputation, their fighting record against Ukrainian forces has been less than stellar.

Mark Voyger, a senior fellow with the Transatlantic Defense and Security Program at the Center for European Analysis, “Putin seems to have overestimated their abilities.

“They are known for recording videos and posting them online, where they shout a lot and they look really menacing with their beards and their AKs. They look like this medieval brutal force.

“But their record in actual warfare against the Ukrainians has been unimpressive.

“They were tasked with attacking Kyiv and then eliminating the Ukrainian leadership together with the Wagner mercenaries but the Ukrainians destroyed the Chechens advancing on Kyiv and killed one of their high-ranking commanders.”

Putin allegedly dispatched an elite Chechen murder team in March to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who remained in the capital for the initial wave of the attack.

Oleksiy Danilov, the head of the National Security and Defence Council, said officials were informed that Mr Kadyrov had sent special forces men.

He said: “We are already aware of the special operation that was to be carried out by Kadyrov forces unit.

“We received the information from representatives of Russia’s Federal Security Service who do not want to take part in this bloody war.

“The Kadyrov forces unit, which came to kill our President, was eliminated.”

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