Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has announced the deployment of troops to support the Kremlin against the armed uprising by the Wagner mercenary group.
"Fighters from the Ministry of Defence and the National Guard of the Chechen Republic have already left for the tense areas. We will do everything to preserve Russia's unity and protect its statehood," Kadyrov wrote on Telegram on Saturday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier spoken of an armed mutiny on state television and announced that he would punish the organizers.
"I support every word of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin," Kadyrov responded. Personal disputes should not be settled in times of war, said the head of the North Caucasus republic, who is notorious for his brutal style of leadership.
Just as the Wagner mercenaries until recently, Chechen fighters are deployed alongside the regular Russian army in the war against Ukraine.
