President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that the US should remove Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov from power as it did Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
As per AFP, the president told journalists that the US needed to pressure Russia to “think twice” about continuing its war in Ukraine.
“Here’s an example with Maduro. They carried out an operation... Everyone can see the result, the whole world can see. They did it promptly. Let them carry out some sort of operation with, what’s his name – Kadyrov,” Zelensky said, referring to a US strike on Venezuela which saw the US snatch Maduro in a nighttime raid on his palace in Caracas.
Kadyrov responded with predictable anger in a post to his Telegram channel.
“The buffoon is suggesting that the US authorities kidnap me. Notice, he didn’t even threaten to do it himself, as a man would,” he said – adding that Zelensky had “cowardly hinted that he wouldn’t mind standing aside and watching from a safe distance as someone else punished his tormentor.”
“If you had a shred of manhood, you’d understand how humiliating your words and requests sound. And how clearly they confirm your attempts to sabotage the peace settlement,” he continued.
Kadyrov, whose Telegram profile picture is a stylized image of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has ruled the Chechen Republic with an iron fist since 2007, towards the end of the Second Chechen War. Between 1994 and 2009, Chechen separatists fought for independence from Russian rule.
On Sept. 1, Ukraine filed war crimes charges against him over his treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war. Kadyrov had previously boasted of ordering his troops to execute Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered and using them as human shields.
Earlier this week, he appointed his 20-year-old son Akhmat Kadyrov acting deputy prime minister, adding to a long track record of appointing family members to senior government positions.