Russian Special Forces Training Academy In Chechnya Struck By Ukrainian Drones

This was one of the longest distance drone strikes of the war, as Ukrainian elements hit an infamous special forces training installation in Gudermes, Chechnya, 650 miles from Ukraine. 

47,000 Russian troops have trained at the school before deploying to Ukraine. The attack may have incapacitated the school - but also sends a message to Chechens that nowhere is safe, even in their remote land. JL

Thomas Newdick reports in The Drive Warzone:

The Kremlin-appointed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov vowed to avenge a Ukrainian drone attack on a special forces training facility in Chechnya. The raid, the first of its kind to hit the southern Russian republic, is one of the longest-range drone strikes Ukraine has attempted - 650 miles from Ukraine. The target was a special forces training center, but the attack also carries symbolic value. The drone strike was on the training academy in the town of Gudermes, 22 miles east of Grozny, the Chechen capital. Kadyrov was responsible for the creation of the Russian University of Special Forces in Gudermes in 2013. 47,000 troops deployed to the front line in Ukraine have been trained in Gudermes.

The Kremlin-appointed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has vowed to avenge a Ukrainian drone attack that struck a military training facility in Chechnya. The raid, which appears to be the first of its kind to hit the southern Russian republic, is one of the longest-range drone strikes that Ukraine has attempted. The target was a special forces training center, but the attack also carries significant symbolic value, due to the high level of support of local strongman Ramzan Kadyrov for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

 

Imagery posted to social media shows the apparent aftermath of the drone strike, on the military training academy in the town of Gudermes, 22 miles east of Grozny, the Chechen capital. As we have discussed in the past, Kadyrov was directly responsible for the creation of the Russian University of Special Forces — also known as the University of Spetsnaz — in Gudermes in 2013. 

“Today at 6:30 a.m. in Gudermes, as a result of an unmanned aerial attack, the roof of an empty building on the territory of the Russian University of Special Forces caught fire,” Kadyrov wrote on social media. “There are no victims or injured. The fire has been extinguished.”

 

Kadyrov claimed that the academy was still operating as usual and that “investigative bodies” were working on “identifying those involved in the crime.”

 

“In the very near future we’ll show them the kind of vengeance they’ve never even dreamt of,” he added.

A satellite image of the Russian University of Special Forces in Gudermes. Imagery from today shows the large, boomerang-shaped building close to the center of the facility on fire. Google Earth

As is typical for drone strikes of this kind, there was no immediate comment from officials in Kyiv.

The privately run training academy’s glitzy website describes it as a “professional educational institution,” that offers “unique training grounds, methodology, and teaching staff that have no analogs in Russia.” The website features prominent testimonies from both Kadyrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The academy instructs both soldiers and civilians in a variety of combat tactics, including gunnery, drone operating, battlefield first aid, and parachute landing.

A Chechen instructor supervises gunnery practice at Gudermes. Russian University of Special Forces

A Russian University of Special Forces course in the operation of quadcopter-type drones. Russian University of Special Forces

More than 47,000 troops deployed to the front line in Ukraine have been trained in Gudermes, according to the Kremlin. Meanwhile, a report from the Russian state news agency TASS claims that over 19,000 volunteers have been trained at the university before going to fight in Ukraine.

 

Ukraine has been regularly using long-range drones of various types to strike targets in Russia, including hitting targets many hundreds of miles behind the front lines. Gudermes is around 780 miles from Odesa and around 650 miles from Kharkiv.

As far as we know, this is the first time a Ukrainian drone strike has been launched against Chechnya, which is led by Kadyrov, a close ally of Putin who has frequently played on his warlord credentials to help bolster support for the war in Ukraine.

Last month, Kadyrov garnered press coverage due to his claim that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had “remotely disabled” his machine-gun-armed Cybertruck, which he had sent to the front line in Ukraine, where he said it had been “performing well in combat.”

“What Elon Musk did was not nice. He gives expensive gifts from the heart and then remotely switches them off,” Kadyrov said, before noting that another pair of Cybertrucks had since been sent to the Ukrainian battlefield.

 

More significantly, Kadyrov has contributed thousands of his own Chechen paramilitary forces to support the full-scale Russian invasion, since the very beginning of the operation.

While Kadyrov presents an image of staunch loyalty to Moscow, his position has also seen him emerge as one of the few political figures in Russia who speaks out about the way the war in Ukraine is being fought.

 

Kadyrov has not held back from criticizing the Russian Armed Forces leadership when Ukrainian forces have made advances or offered tougher-than-expected resistance and he has suggested in the past that Putin might not be fully aware of the real situation on the ground in Ukraine.

Earlier this year there were signs that the Kremlin might be looking to appoint a new Chechen leader, amid rumors that Kadyrov was seriously ill with pancreatic necrosis. The leader responded by publishing a workout video to counter claims of his deteriorating health.

“Remember that taking care of your health is an investment in your future,” a caption to the video read, while footage showed Kadyrov bench-pressing, lifting weights, and wrestling with a sparring partner.

Interestingly, Kadyrov also moved to shore up his position as a staunch Putin supporter after the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group who launched a brief armed mutiny against Russia’s leadership in the summer of 2023, before being killed in a plane crash, the details of which remain murky.

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A day after Prigozhin’s funeral, Kadyrov — who had previously suggested that he could provide an alternative to the Wagner boss — described himself as Putin’s foot soldier and said he was ready to die for the Russian president. There were also suggestions Kadyrov might be lining himself up as Prigozhin’s successor, with his claims that former Wagner Group mercenaries were training in Chechnya with his forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov visit the Russian University of Special Forces in Gudermes on August 20 of this year. Photo by Vyacheslav PROKOFYEV / POOL / AFP VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV

With repeated accusations of human rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial killings, as well as sanctions in multiple countries to his name, Kadyrov remains a very visible and highly active supporter of the Russian war effort. The fact the territory he rules over has come under long-range drone attack shouldn’t be too much of a surprise as Ukraine continues to expand its drone programs.

There is a possibility that Russia’s failure to defend Kadyrov’s republic against drone attacks will lead to more criticisms leveled toward the Russian Ministry of Defense. Ever since Ukraine began its campaign of long-range drone strikes, there have been questions asked about the efficiency and preparedness of Russian air defenses to counter these threats.

 

At the same time, depending on the damage that was inflicted, targeting the Russian University of Special Forces may also serve to disrupt the operations at what is, by all accounts, an important training center feeding both Russian soldiers and volunteers to support the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. But above all else, this was a symbolic strike, although it could be the first of many more to come.