Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Tuesday criticized Russia’s “weak response” to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory, referring to regions of Ukraine illegally annexed by Moscow.
“We are reacting weakly,” Kadyrov wrote on the social network Telegram, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
According to the Chechen leader, recently promoted to colonel general, “there was first talk of a special military operation on Ukrainian soil”, but now the “war is being fought” on Russian soil.
“I’m very unhappy with it,” he said.
Kadyrov said Ukrainian forces have not stopped attacking even after martial law was declared in late September in the four regions annexed by Russia, targeting Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporijia.
The Chechen leader called for a strong response, saying there was no need to fear the reaction of the West, because all the bad that could happen “has already happened”.
“It can’t get any worse,” he added.
After the invasion of Ukraine on February 24 this year, Russia annexed Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporijia on September 30, after wartime referenda.
Ukraine and the wider international community did not recognize the decision by Moscow, which had previously annexed the Ukrainian peninsula from Crimea in 2014.
The Ukrainian armed forces are on a counter-offensive to retake territory under Russian control, including in the annexed regions.
The counter-offensive was made possible by the supply of arms to Ukraine by its western allies.
Ukraine’s defense ministry announced on Monday that its forces had already recaptured 90 places in the Kherson region, including “more than 12,000 people”.
In light of the advancing Ukrainian troops, pro-Russian Kherson officials said last week they planned to evacuate 50,000 to 60,000 residents of the southern Ukrainian port city “for security reasons”.
Information about the course of the war disclosed by both sides cannot be independently verified.
Source: DN
