Fire breaks out after drone strike on Chechen special forces university named after Putin

A drone strike has caused the roof of a building at the Russian Special Forces University in the Chechen city of Gudermes to catch fire, the republic’s head, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced on Monday.

According to Kadyrov, the roof of an “empty building” on the campus of the university, which is named after Vladimir Putin, caught fire after a drone strike shortly before dawn on Monday. No one was injured in the attack, Kadyrov wrote.

Images shared on social media showed fire and smoke rising from a building on the university campus. The Armed Forces of Ukraine have not yet commented on the reported attack.

The drone strike is the first of its kind to have been officially acknowledged on the territory of the North Caucasus republic by its authorities. In July, a video that appeared to show the aftermath of a drone strike on northeastern Chechnya was posted online, but was immediately dismissed as “fake” by the Chechen Interior Ministry.

The Akhmat Battalion, a Chechen paramilitary organisation that is led by close Kadyrov ally Apti Alaudinov, reportedly trains its recruits at the Vladimir Putin Russian Special Forces University in Gudermes.

Vladimir Putin visited the Special Forces University in August, where, according to a Kremlin press release, he “toured the training complex, observed classes” and “briefly talked” to recruits undergoing training there. Chechen media also reported in April that the university had begun drone production on its premises using components produced in China.

“We shall not be trifled with,” Kadyrov told Chechen TV on Tuesday in response to the drone strike, warning that Chechnya would “show retribution in the near future that they have never dreamed of”.

“Today I gave all the commanders on the frontline an order not to take prisoners, to destroy and to intensify the fight even more, 100%,” Kadyrov said.