Drone strikes Kadyrov’s forces barracks in Grozny overnight (video)

A drone struck the Akhmat Kadyrov Special Purpose Police Regiment barracks in Russia’s Grozny, Chechnya, over 800 km behind the lines, in the early hours of 12 December, allegedly wounding four guards and triggering a significant emergency response across the city.

This year, Ukraine has intensified its long-range drone attacks against the military and fuel facilities within Russia, significantly disrupting fuel and ammunition supplies crucial for the Russian military. Many of such attacks targeted Russian bomb warehouses at airbases, ammunition depots, fuel processing and storage facilities deep inside Russia. Meanwhile, Russia continues its relentless nightly drone, missile, and bomb attacks on Ukraine, with strikes intensifying in recent months.

The attack occurred at 00:55 local time (23:55 Kyiv time). Chechen opposition Telegram channel Niyso reported that the explosion was powerful enough to be heard in suburban areas, with numerous residents posting about the incident on social media.

Videos, published by Russian Telegram channels, showed a massive explosion low in the night sky, and subsequent response to the attack.

Russian-installed Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on Telegram:

“The drone was shot down above the barracks buildings of the special police regiment. No one was seriously injured. Four guard personnel received minor injuries,” Kadyrov stated on his Telegram channel. He claimed that the personnel on duty were in protected facilities at the time of the attack.

According to Niyso, at least five ambulances were seen transporting the wounded to the Republican Clinical Emergency Hospital. The channel reported that the explosion damaged the building’s roof and broke windows, with falling fragments causing a small fire that was quickly extinguished.

Kadyrov blamed Ukrainian forces for the attack and threatened to deploy additional troops to Ukraine.

“A reserve of 84,000 volunteers and unit personnel from the Chechen Republic is ready to move to the frontline at the first order,” he declared, threatening that “just for these four wounded, we will take down 400 Ukro-NATO-fighters.”

Despite their widespread deployment at the front, Kadyrov’s troops, known as Kadyrovites, are known to act frequently as military police in rear areas and as barrier troops positioned behind Russian forces to prevent retreat.

Kadyrov’s special police regiment

The targeted facility is part of Russia’s Interior Ministry and is used for special operations in Chechnya. The unit has also participated in Russia’s war against Ukraine. In June 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that since Russia’s full-scale invasion, over 40,000 Russian military personnel and mercenaries, mostly Kadyrov’s troops, had been trained at this facility.

This marks the second attack on Kadyrov’s facility this month, following a previous drone strike on 4 December 2024. Ukrainian special service sources later unofficially confirmed to Suspilne that the drones in that attack might have been launched from Dagestan or Ingushetia.

Other attacks inside Russia

In other developments overnight, Russian Telegram channel Astra reported that residents heard powerful explosions in western Russia’s Kursk at 00:11. Later, at 2:04 a.m., the channel reported explosions in Taganrog area’s Neklinovsky district, Rostov Oblast, in southern Russia.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its air defense systems destroyed 16 Ukrainian drones overnight – four over Kursk Oblast, one over Chechnya, three over North Ossetia, and eight over Crimea.

Regarding yesterday’s ATACMS strike on Rostov Oblast, Astra updated that 41 Russian military personnel were wounded and one killed in a missile strike on a military airfield in Taganrog, Rostov Oblast, during the night of 10-11 December. The attack also targeted an aircraft repair plant and a military unit housing the 5th Aviation Group of the 6955th Air Base.

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