Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said his forces would not fight on Iran’s behalf in its conflict with the United States and Israel.
Kadyrov made the statement in Russian and Arabic on his Telegram channel on the evening of April 8, saying he was responding to what he described as online rumors that Chechen units were prepared to deploy to Iran to repel a U.S. ground attack.
“This could well have happened if Iran were fighting only against the United States and Israel. But they are also attacking our brothers. Without any doubt, I personally support Iran’s side — with one ‘but’: I do not support Iran’s strikes on civilian targets and civilian infrastructure in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf,” Kadyrov said.
He said he has “brotherly relations” with the leaders of the UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. “It deeply pains me to watch the civilians of these and other third countries become innocent victims of the conflict,” he added.
Kadyrov said in March that he considered Iran’s strikes on U.S. military bases in the Middle East an “expected rebuff to the enemy,” while calling strikes on civilian infrastructure and the deaths of civilians unacceptable.
Chechen units have been participating in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Ukraine’s Security Service said in 2022 that it had gathered “irrefutable evidence of war crimes” by Kadyrov and two of his subordinates. According to the Security Service, Kadyrov personally developed and planned certain military operations in Ukraine in February and March 2022. Chechen servicemen have also been suspected of war crimes.
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