Ukrainian drones reportedly target multiple security agencies in Chechen capital Grozny

Ukrainian drones attacked the Chechen capital of Grozny on Sunday morning, with eyewitnesses saying they saw drones in the air and that they heard explosions in the city, pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Baza reported.

Anonymously run Chechen opposition channel NIYSO posted a video showing a drone hitting what it said was a riot police barracks in Grozny, while another video it posted showed a drone flying over the city with the sound of automatic gunfire audible in the background, about which the channel wryly commented “This seems to be the air defence,” the channel wrote. “Not funny? This is Russia!”

In addition to the riot police barracks, the drones hit a Chechen Interior Ministry patrol base and a military base where soldiers were being trained ahead of deployment to Ukraine, NIYSO reported.

Another video of the attack posted on X by Russian military analyst Yan Matveyev showed a drone striking what he said was the barracks of Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov’s security forces, adding that the drone was likely a modified light aircraft, namely the A-22, which has reportedly been used by Kyiv for long-range unmanned strikes into Russia.

Kadyrov confirmed the attack on his Telegram channel on Sunday, saying that while three drones had reached Grozny, two were intercepted by air defence systems, while the other struck a riot police barracks. The Chechen leader added that there were no casualties and threatened to respond to any attacks with retaliatory strikes on Ukrainian personnel.

On Thursday, Kadyrov reported another attack on a police barracks in Grozny that injured four people, vowing to retaliate against Ukraine and claiming that “84,000 volunteers and fighters” from Chechnya were awaiting orders to be deployed to the front line in Ukraine.

The Russian Defence Ministry on Sunday reported that Russian air defence units had shot down 15 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and in the western Kursk and Belgorod regions overnight Saturday, but made no mention of Chechnya.